After The Mission
by fringeperson
Summary: What if Hermione was actually a Konoha shinobi - so deep under cover that she was practically a civilian while at Hogwarts? When she returns to Konoha, what will she have hidden up her sleeve with that wand? Don't own. Rated for violence & stuff later.
1. Chapter 1

"Itachi, you're an idiot," declared Uchiha Fukurou as she walked into the Uchiha estate, Sasuke carried on her back, to see her first brother, and the middle child of their family, slicing his sword through their father's stomach.

"Hermione nee-san?" Itachi asked, surprised. He had thought she was still away on that mission at that school of hers on the other side of the world. She was undercover as Hermione Granger, keeping an eye on Harry Potter. For the sake of her mission's success, the family had started calling her by her cover name, so that she would respond to it naturally, though she had removed the wig and contact lenses that helped her to blend in with the students of Hogwarts, her own black eyes and short cropped black hair revealed once more. He hadn't expected her return for at least another month due to the wizard war she was fighting in, by which time he had hoped to have vacated the village – he really didn't want to face her if she was mad at him.

"Hello little brother," she said, smirking, even as she took in how bloody the fifteen-year-old was, and the cooling corpse of their father, the figure of their mother cowering in the corner of the room, clearly trapped in a genjutsu she was not well-trained enough to escape. "So, what high-up bastard ordered you to kill the clan?"

Itachi swallowed. _This_ was why he had wanted to be away before Fukurou got back. She was too smart, the true prodigy of the family. He was considered gifted because she had taken the time to teach him, and Sasuke was on his way to being considered a prodigy as well for the same reason – though because of her long-term mission, Itachi had been trying to keep up the lessons in her absence. Between ANBU and their father, he hadn't been doing a very good job of it.

"Uchiha Madara and Danzo of ROOT..." he mumbled, unable to look his older sister in the eye.

Fukurou shook her head, sighing in shame and hoisting Sasuke into a higher, more comfortable position on her back once more. "So it's just you, me, Sasuke and Kaa-san left? Apart from the old bastard?"

Itachi nodded.

"It didn't occur to you even once that conducting genocide, even on orders, could get you labelled as a missing nin?" Fukurou asked, moving closer and, putting Sasuke down, took the bloody sword from Itachi's hand.

He didn't respond. Not a good sign.

The eldest Uchiha sibling pinched the bridge of her nose, a habit that had annoyed their father, but always meant that she was thinking.

"You at least activated your Mangekyo Sharingan as a result of this mess I hope," she said, not opening her eyes.

"Hai."

"Well, that's something at least, and remember to use it only sparingly, don't want _you_ going blind. Let Kaa-san out of it, she's the only one left in this family with any idea how to cook more than one dish apart from rice or instant, and I'm hungry," she said, letting her hand down. "I'll figure out how to tell the Hokage and ... I'll have to alter Kaa-san's memory." Fukurou fixed a patent Uchiha glare on her brother. "I don't like that I'm going to have to do that Otouto."

"I am sorry Nee-san," Itachi said, bowing before her wisdom.

"What are you sorry for, Itachi? It is important that you know what you did wrong, that way you will know how to avoid doing it again," Fukurou instructed gently, laying a hand on her brother's shoulder while Sasuke stood by them.

"I am sorry I let myself be talked into doing something as bloodthirsty as this, and I am sorry you and Sasuke had to see it."

Fukurou nodded, made her brother's hold each others hands, and had them follow her while she inspected what Itachi had done.

"You've been very professional about this Itachi, that at least is in your favour," she said when her inspection was done and the three siblings returned to their mother, who was still cowering in the corner of the room where she had been when Fukurou and Sasuke returned home.

Released from Itachi's genjutsu, Uchiha Mitoko's eyes widened and she gave a rattling breath, relaxing. When Fukurou put her hand to their mother's neck, searching for a pulse, she found none. Their mother's heart had stopped.

"I'd say that was an 'oops', Otouto, a very big 'oops' indeed," Fukurou stated, standing up. "Oh well, time to see the Hokage."

Itachi attempted to run, only to be halted by his older sister's hand grasping his belt.

"Oh no you don't, Itachi. You're going to face the consequences of this and beg forgiveness for being too trusting of an Elder of our clan. Come on Sasuke-chan, you too. Ibiki-sensei is probably going to want to make sure we're all still psychologically capable of being Konohagakure shinobi after coming home to this sight," she said, smiling, though it was a slightly creepy smile.

~oOo~

"Fukurou-san, I did not expect you back in my office so soon," Sarutobi said, looking up from his paperwork in surprise. "Itachi-san, Sasuke-san, it is good to see you as well."

"I'm afraid it isn't, Hokage-sama," the eldest sibling stated sadly. "My Otouto, Uchiha Itachi has been victimised in my absence. Manipulated by an Elder of our clan, Uchiha Madara, and ROOT director Danzo, Uchiha Itachi was made to believe that his own clan was a threat to the village's safety and then instructed as an ANBU to remove the threat. I arrived at the Uchiha compound in time to witness the death of our parents. We three and Madara are all that remains of the Uchiha clan. I wish to formally request the full exposure of the actions of Madara and Danzo, and full pardon for Itachi provided he can pass a psychological evaluation by Ibiki-sensei."

Sarutobi sat wide-eyed as he took in this very delicate information that had just been rattled off by the greatest prodigy the Uchiha clan had ever offered as though it were a simple mission report. At last, he nodded.

"The three of you are to see Ibiki in one hour. Until then, you are to get yourselves examined, and go through your annual physical at the hospital, wait in the lobby when that is done. Ibiki will collect you from there. I will deal with these two personally," Sarutobi said, growling at the idea that someone _else_ was giving out orders in his village.

The three Uchiha's nodded, and the eldest ushered her two brother's towards the door.

"Fukurou-san? You will not be able to stay on the Uchiha estate until the full investigation is complete, which could take a while. What will you do in the mean time?" Sarutobi called just before she exited his office.

"With your permission Hokage-sama, can this be discussed after my evaluation?"

The Sandaime nodded and waved her out of his office.

~oOo~

"Fuu-chan, what are you trying to do to me?" Morino Ibiki asked, a tired smile slipping onto his face at the sight of the young woman who had once been his favourite genin.

"Sorry Sensei, but Itachi needs his head examined, and I thought it would be a good precaution to get all of us checked out together," she answered happily, almost too happily for someone who had returned home to find one of her brother's removing his sword from their father.

Ibiki shook his head at the eighteen-year-old girl who had been his apprentice all those years ago, back when she had been a miracle child to rival Hatake Kakashi. The two had been separated only by two years, but due to the disparity between their areas of genius, as well as the condition of their families, they had needed to be treated very differently. Ibiki suspected his apprentice of having a crush on the silver-haired genius, but he hadn't ever been given the chance to prove it. He smirked to himself. Psychological evaluation included romantic interests sometimes, perhaps he'd finally get an answer from his favourite prodigy... about her favourite prodigy. First things first though.

"Uchiha Itachi," Ibiki said, turning his attention to the middle child. "Please, step into my office, and kindly do _not_ activate your bloodline ability at any time during the interview."

"Wouldn't dare sir," Itachi answered. He had heard the horror stories of Morino Ibiki, and his sister's enthusiastic recounts of lessons under the man, besides this interview was for his own good.

Fukurou taught Sasuke a few minor genjutsu for the hour that Itachi was in with Ibiki, and then when her brother's switched places, she quizzed Itachi on how their old man had been behaving himself without her there, growling quietly at the way he continued to compare his children to the one before, setting Itachi up on an impossible pedestal and ignoring Sasuke, all the while demanding more of both of them without putting forth any more effort than to compare them to her own success and order them to meet it at the very least.

When the eight-year-old emerged from Ibiki's office, sucking on a lollipop, Fukurou smiled and told her brothers to go to Training Ground 1 and work on their aim with various distances and moving targets, promising to meet them there when she was done.

"How did they come out sensei?" she asked, taking her seat in the chair opposite his, leaning back comfortably in the chair designed for discomfort, as her instructor sat in his own and looked at her over laced-together hands, his elbows on his desk as he considered her now.

"They are both heavily conflicted, Fuu-chan. Itachi knows he did his task well, but he also knows that he should not have done it. Sasuke will miss those of his family who are gone, and wants to cling to those who are left, even though one of them is the reason the others are gone," Ibiki answered.

"Figured as much," Fukurou said, resignedly. "More scars on the shinobi, but ones that can't be seen. I'll work on them, they haven't broken too badly I think. A little love, a little glue, the last Uchiha's won't be perfect, but we'll be the best damn patch-job I can manage."

Ibiki laughed at the girl, her fighting spirit, her need and want to care for her family and those around her. "I'm sure you'll all be fine. But this isn't a review Fukurou, it's your turn, and I'm going to use the opportunity afforded me by right of psychological evaluator to get all those sneaky little answers from you that you were always finding ways around when you were my apprentice."

"Oh no!" she said, blushing slightly and hiding her face in one pale hand. "Don't say you want to know about my love-life!"

"I want to know _exactly_ that, my dear Fuu-chan. A healthy social life is important for any well-balanced person. You're not a kunoichi twenty-four seven after all. So, we'll start easy, and then I'll work my way up to the juicy bits, alright?"

"Oh Kami!"

"How many hours a day do you train in taijutsu?"  
"Warm up is a quarter-hour, then two hours training, then a quarter-hour cooling down. I also dedicate one hour to ninjutsu, a half-hour to genjutsu, and I spend any extra time on logic puzzles and strategy games to keep my mind sharp – about a half hour."

"That's not very much," Ibiki commented, surprised. He'd had her at physical training from sunrise til noon every day, then mind-games, code breakers and poisons until dinner, sometimes keeping her from her family over night to work on extra fields of study, or assigning her scrolls to memorise by the next morning.

"I've been on a long-term mission at a school with civilians whose idea of sport is whizzing around on flying broomsticks, and caught up in a man-hunt. Most of them are panting heavily just from running to their classes. I made bunshin to do my homework for me when I was at the school so that I had time to train, and since then I've trained in any moment I could get to myself. I worked myself as hard as possible in my circumstances sensei, I promise."

"Ah, your long-term mission. Undercover. Had you made friends with the students at this Hogwarts place?"

"Only as appropriate. The target, Potter Harry, his best friend Weasley Ron and his family, a nervous boy called Longbottom Neville, and a few others. They are idiots, with exception of Weasley Fred and Weasley George, older twin brothers of Weasley Ron. These two have genius potential and put it to use in a ... truly unique way," she answered, smiling sardonically at the memory of those two. Hermione disapproved of them, not because of their rule-breaking, but because they applied their genius in a way that seemed illogical to her, though she quietly thought that since those two opened up that shop, she would definitely become a regular customer, and not just for their joke candy. Though all future journeys would be as herself rather than as the Hermione Granger that they knew. It would probably be a good idea to see if they were able to do mail-orders. She smiled at the thought.

"Have you developed a romantic inclination towards any of your charges?"

"No. The Weasley boys are handsome, but generally foolish, even the genius twins. Potter Harry is too self-obsessed, though he doesn't entirely realise it, and it is not helped by Weasley Ron's open admiration of him, even when they are arguing. A Krum Victor expressed an interest in my person last year, but I did not return it beyond polite friendship. I faked my death before returning."

"Any romantic interests in Konohagakure?"

"Sensei," she whined, wanting to not answer that one.

"Fuu-chan," he mimicked, teasing, but refusing to let it slide.

She huffed, crossing her arms defensively. "Yes, but if you think I'm going to spill who then you've got another thing coming."

"Aw, I'm upset that you don't trust me enough to tell me Fuu-chan," Ibiki wheedled happily.

"Trust has nothing to do with it. Next question, Sensei."

"Did I really raise my apprentice without a sense of humour?" Ibiki lamented dramatically for a moment.

"If you had brought me up without a sense of humour, do you really think I would have made all of you medical supplies pink that time?" she quizzed back, grinning deviously.

Ibiki shook his head. "Alright, next question. What was your initial reaction to seeing Uchiha Sasuke when you returned earlier today?"

"He was just leaving the Academy. I snuck up on him and scooped him up in my arms, tickling him and telling him to be more aware of his surroundings. It was so good to see him again. I missed my brothers while I was away on my mission."

"And when you returned to your family estate?"

"Itachi was just killing Tou-san," Fukurou closed her eyes. "Tou-san was never the easiest to get along with, obsessed with having prodigies for children. Part of me was relieved that I wouldn't have to hear him going on about being the very best ever again. Another part of me lamented that I would never get to hear him say good morning to me, or watch him as he took tea with Kaa-san. As a shinobi, I was proud of my brother for performing such a clean kill, but I was still shocked that he was killing Tou-san. I'm the big sister though, and Itachi has always looked to me for guidance. I don't think either of my otouto's are really leaders, not initiative takers. It took me barely a second to figure out that someone had tricked him into doing it."

Ibiki nodded, and continued the interview.

~oOo~

Fukurou watched her brothers throwing their kunai at the targets. Itachi was hitting nine out of ten, but Sasuke was only making five out of ten, and neither of them were hitting their targets dead centre anything like as often as they should have been. Both of the boys were distracted, but her youngest otouto should not have been doing that poorly. She called him over to her and studied his stance and technique, correcting it and telling him to try again.

"Much better," she said, smiling and ruffling his short hair when he hit his target right in the centre.

"Hermione nee-san, what will happen now?" Itachi asked, stopping his own practice to give his older sister his full attention.

"Ibiki-sensei has delivered his report to the Hokage. We are to immediately return to the Hokage's office," she answered, picking up Sasuke and settling him on one of her shoulders, making him wrap his arms around the top of her head while she held onto his legs.

~oOo~

When the three Uchiha's entered Sarutobi's office, he was reading Fukurou's completed mission report, the psychological evaluations open upon his desk. Morino Ibiki and Hatake Kakashi were also in the office, standing at ease.

Fukurou forced herself to remain calm and _not_ blush at the sight of the man two years older than herself, and to keep her mouth shut rather than demand the reason for his presence. She knew she would be told, or he wouldn't still be here.

"Uchiha Itachi. You have committed a crime. Your psychological evaluation has proven, however, that you had believed your actions to be under my orders and for the good of the village, or you would not have done it. Your loyalty to your Hokage and village is noted, and your ability to obey orders despite finding them extremely distasteful has made you an excellent ANBU agent. It has been decided, however, that for the sake of your mental health, you will be given special jounin status, allowing you to work independently unless your Hokage personally requests otherwise. Am I clear?" Sarutobi said, locking his eyes on Itachi.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Itachi answered.

"Uchiha Fukurou, your mission report, and the letter from Snape Severus regarding your conduct, is both very thorough and most pleasing. Congratulations on your successful mission, and I am sorry for the circumstances you returned home to. You are hereby formally recognised as the head of your family, depleted as it is. Until the Uchiha compound is cleared by ANBU investigation squad B for habitation, and properly cleaned, Hatake Kakashi has offered the Hatake compound for your use," the Hokage continued, eyes locked on the young woman as he gestured to Kakashi.

"It's been empty for years, and I figure I owe the Uchiha family a few dozen favours," Kakashi explained casually when three pairs of black eyes snapped to him in surprise.

"Thank you Hatake-san," Fukurou said, nudging her brothers as they continued to gape in surprise.

"Ah, thank you Kakashi-senpai," Itachi said.

"Thank you Hatake-san," Sasuke echoed.

Sarutobi coughed to get their attention again.

"I want nothing said about this from any of you until the investigation is complete. Sasuke, you're not to tell your friends in the academy about this, alright? Every one will be told a comprehensive, if censored, story soon enough," the Hokage said, getting confirming nods from everybody before dismissing them.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hermione nee-san?" Sasuke asked as she carried him through the village, following behind the gravity-defying silver hair. "We can't even go home to get our things?"

"I'm afraid not, Sasuke-chan," Fukurou said. "We'll have to get you some new things for until we can. I'll bet you were starting to outgrow your clothes anyway."

"Kaa-san was giving him my old clothes," Itachi supplied.

"Neglect or just stingy I wonder? Well, never mind. You can have all new clothes Sasuke-chan, how does that sound? You can pick out anything you like," Fukurou said, smiling up at the boy she was still carrying on her shoulder.

"Really Hermione nee-san? I can pick out whatever I like?" Sasuke asked eagerly, bouncing slightly at the idea.

"Five outfits," she cautioned firmly. She wasn't going to spoil him, but he needed a few rounds of clothes to wear between washes, and he was still growing, so they'd need to be replaced soon anyway.

"Hermione, Uchiha Fukurou-san?" Kakashi asked, stopped in front of a large wooden gate which had a proportionately large lock hanging from it.

"My last mission was overseas, I was required to blend in," she answered, trying not to blush. "My family helped me when I was able to visit by continuing to call me by my cover name, so that I would answer to it naturally."

"It's a really pretty name too," Sasuke added enthusiastically.

"Hm, but my mission is over now, so you don't have to call me Hermione ever again. I can just be Fukurou again," she said, distracting herself from Kakashi's attention by focusing on her youngest brother.

Kakashi just nodded and stuck a key into the lock through the door. In a village full of highly trained shinobi, locks were really just a visible request that people leave the place alone. The Hatake estate had been left alone for easily a decade, Kakashi preferring to live in an apartment if he was going to be living alone, rather than having large amounts of space resonating their emptiness all around him.

"But we can't call you Fuu-nee-san any more either," Itachi said in that dead-pan voice of his that always left a person wondering if he was being serious or not. "Hokage-sama declared you head of the Uchihas. We have to call you Fukurou-sama, and always defer to you and treat you with formality and respect, like Tou-san."

Kakashi mentally froze up. He hoped he wouldn't have to treat the Uchiha girl like he'd had to treat the other elders and clan heads he had been forced to interact with before. It would be too stressful to have that sort of thing happening every day.

Fukurou looked over at her brother, eyed him a moment, then hit him on the top of his head with the soft side of her fist, though the strike wasn't all that gentle, and Itachi was rubbing his head where he had been struck.

"You even try that sort of thing and I will be forced to think up a very creative punishment for you, and I learned a lot of very interesting things on my mission," she told him sternly. "I'm only the mighty, kunai-lodged-up-the-ass, formal and respect-demanding Uchiha Fukurou-sama if I have to go to a meeting with the elders and other clan heads. All the rest of the time, I'm just your big sister, alright? Relax Otouto," she teased.

Kakashi heaved a mental sigh of relief. "Welcome to the Hatake estate," he said, interrupting any further comments Itachi might have made to his sister by drawing their attention to their new temporary residence. "It's a bit neglected, but with a little work it should be liveable. I'll show you to some rooms you can use first, if that's alright?"

"That would be really great, Hatake-san. I haven't even had the chance to unpack from my mission yet. I just took off the disguise when I arrived in Fire Country and that was it," Fukurou said, smiling widely at the very idea.

"Did you bring back presents Onee-san?" Sasuke begged as they followed Kakashi into the building.

"Hai, hai. I always bring back presents don't I Sasuke-chan?"

"Yay!"

"You don't even know what she's brought back yet Sasuke, it might be more of those lollies that made your tongue turn purple and swell up," Itachi said with a frown.

"Hey, I didn't give Sasuke the Tonne Tongue Toffee Itachi-chan," Fukurou protested.

"I am never accepting any food you give me unless you taste it first," Kakashi stated firmly, both horrified and amused. "This will be your room, Uchiha-sama. Itachi-san, yours is three doors that way, Sasuke-kun, the second door beyond that"

"Please don't call me that," Fukurou protested quietly, not liking the sound of it from him.

"Why so many doors between us?" Sasuke asked at the same time.

"Because I have noticed that girls like to have their own bathroom," Kakashi said, addressing Sasuke. "And as the person in charge of your family, your Onee-san is going to need an office, and a place to receive other clan-heads when they come to visit her," he explained, pointing to each of the doors to indicate what was behind them. "The room between you and your Onii-san is a bathroom that the two of you will share."

"Which is your room Hatake-san?" Sasuke asked, looking along the row of rooms.

Kakashi pointed to a room two doors down from the one he had given to Fukurou. "The same one that was my room when I lived here with my family. Now, first things first, we're going to have to clean the place unless you want to be sneezing all the time because of dust, so while Uchiha-san unpacks from her mission, shall we get started?"

The boys nodded their agreement and Kakashi led the way to another part of the estate, presumably where the kitchen, laundry, and cleaning cupboard were.

Fukurou shook her head at them as they left her behind. "I _have_ gotten lazy," she commented to herself as she pulled out the wand she had been learning to use for the past seven years. She cast a quick cleaning charm about the room and watched in satisfaction as the dust, grime and mould disappeared, leaving the room as clean and spotless as the day after the paint had finished drying, but without the smell. That done, she withdrew a box from one of her pockets that could easily have been mistaken as belonging to a doll's house. Setting it on the floor, she pointed her wand at it and watched with satisfaction as the trunk grew to its correct size. Unlocked and opened, she began the slightly tedious process of un-shrinking everything that had been contained in the trunk – various school books and equipment, the large box of chocolate frogs she had brought back for Itachi and the somewhat smaller box of things that would go bang for Sasuke. There was the broomstick that she had refrained from telling anybody on her mission that she had invested in when she had discovered that Malfoy had bought one for every member of the Slytherin Quidditch team, all of the other books she had purchased out of curiosity, and a few other bits and bobs. She had been forced to leave Crookshanks behind, but smart as the cat was, she knew he wasn't cut out for the life of a shinobi animal. She knew that Ginny would take good care of him.

Looking through all the various stuff that she had, Fukurou wondered if there was anything in there that she could give to Hatake-san, as a thank you for letting her and her brothers stay with him at his family estate. She smiled as she spotted something she had purloined from Potter while he had been, er, indisposed. It would probably be better for all involved if he never had access to his invisibility cloak ever again, and she was certain that Hatake-san would have better uses for it. She had intended to just use it herself for intelligence missions, but after all that mess with the wizards, she was ready to settle down into something a bit easier and with less likelihood of encountering more large-scale death or excessive violence. A genin team sounded appealing, or a maybe she would take a job at the Academy.

Thinking about it for a moment, she just hoped that none of his 'better uses' for the item would include playing a prank on her or anybody else that she would have to answer to if they demanded to know where he got the thing from.

~oOo~

"How did this happen?" Kakashi asked, staring at the perfectly clean passage which had, barely ten minutes ago when he left Uchiha-san to unpack, been covered in dust and dirt.

"Don't know," Itachi answered, also stunned. "But I'd really like to."

"Fuu-nee-san!" Sasuke called out. "The hall is clean, can we have presents now?"

Itachi bit on his lower lip and Kakashi smothered his laughter with a hand at the child's enthusiasm.

"I know the hall is clean Sasuke-chan. _I_ cleaned it," Uchiha-san answered, sticking her head out of her room to answer her littlest brother. "But alright. There are a few things I want to talk to you about as well that I couldn't before because of my mission. It's case closed now though, and I am free of all restraints. I could run my mouth off and nothing spectacularly bad will happen."

Itachi and Sasuke moved eagerly toward their sister's room, while Kakashi watched, slightly awkwardly, before moving to shuffle off to clean the kitchen.

"Hatake-san, I would be honoured if you would join us too," Fukurou added, still looking out of the room even while her brothers stepped in.

Kakashi blinked in surprise before putting down the bucket in his hand and approaching the female warily.

"I'm not going to do anything horrid to you Hatake-san," she said, smiling in amusement as she stepped aside to let him in.

Kakashi blinked in wonderment, that she had been able to unpack so much stuff so quickly, and particularly when it hadn't looked like she was carrying anything at all. He didn't remember her even having a decent sized storage scroll to have pulled all this stuff from.

"Please, do sit down," she said, gesturing to a cushion she had clearly fetched from the meeting room he had indicated before, though it looked newer than he thought it should.

"We finally get to hear about your mission Fuu-nee-san?" Sasuke asked, bouncing slightly where he sat on his cushion.

"Hai, but I know you really just want your present," she answered, smiling. "Here," she said, passing the boy a box. "No setting them off inside, alright Sasuke-chan? And I _will_ know if you do."

Sasuke accepted the box happily, pulling the lid off to reveal many different balls, boxes and tubes. Nearly all of them had fuses, and there was a small book of instructions sitting on top. Kakashi hoped the boy read the manual before setting off anything that looked as bang-inclined as that.

"Itachi," Uchiha Fukurou said, taking attention away from the boy with the new 'boom box', and drawing it to the box she was now giving the older of the two brothers. "Don't eat them all at once, alright?" she added.

Kakashi peered over to see piles of brown frogs, _chocolate_ frogs, inside the box. Well, the older Uchiha brother was known to have something of a sweet tooth.

"Hatake-san."

He blinked in surprise.

She somehow managed to smirk sheepishly.

"I didn't go shopping for you Hatake-san. I only ever buy gifts on missions for my brothers, or the target as the deception requires. I did think, however, that we owe you a great debt for opening your home to us, and while I was unpacking thought that perhaps you might have a use for this."

Kakashi stared at a pile of cloth in Uchiha-san's hands, accepting it gingerly when she held it out to him.

"I had intended to use it myself on stealth missions, but I think you will find use for it more often than I would," she continued to explain. "It's a cloak. Please, try it on."

Kakashi stood and, letting most of the fabric fall from his fingers, wrapped the collar around his neck.

Itachi and Sasuke yelped, and he looked down. He yelped himself when he registered what he _wasn't_ seeing.

"A rather useful thing, isn't it? I suspect that the Hyuuga would not be fooled by it, and of course, if you bump into someone, they'll feel it, but it certainly hides a person well enough generally," Uchiha-san said, chuckling. "It's got a hood too, so it is possible for you to completely vanish from sight."

Kakashi slipped a hand out of the front of the cloak, his single visible eye wide and disbelieving.

"Thank you very much Uchiha-san," he said at last. "This is a great gift, surely outweighing my simply providing you with a place to live for a while."

Uchiha Fukurou shook her head. "Just don't lose it, and if it gets damaged somehow, only bring it to me for fixing. This is a secret even the Hokage hasn't been fully informed of," she said, a little cheekily. "Not that he really _wants_ to know all that I have learned on my mission. He doesn't much care for magic really, and I don't blame him."

For exactly five seconds, the room was dead silent, then the Kakashi, Itachi and Sasuke all burst out at the same time.

"_Magic_?" they said all at once.

"Yep."

"Can you teach me Fuu-nee-san?" Sasuke asked as, once Fukurou had finished explaining her mission, she had pulled out her wand and performed a few spells.

"I'll think about it," she said, ruffling his hair with a smile. "I'll definitely take you to visit the wizard shops sometime though. There's a lot of learning to be had just by watching these people after all."

Sasuke nodded enthusiastically.

"Now lets get this place cleaned up, and then how about we train for a while?"

~oOo~

Fukurou laughed and groaned simultaneously as Sasuke dumped her in the dust. Spending the last eight years in the wizarding world of England had left her a lot softer than she had feared, even with her sneaking off to get in some intensive training whenever she could. She'd really been able to properly keep up with her training the year that McGonagall had given her the time turner. It gave her whole spare days to train, but she'd had to return it at the end of the school year, and hadn't completely figured out how to make one for herself.

"You've gotten faster Sasuke-chan," she said with approval as she got up. It always helped her brothers to get at least a little bit of an ego boost while they were training. "Of course, I've gotten slower as well, so we can work on both of us getting faster together."

"Hai Fuu-nee-san!"

"Now, show me how you breathe fire," she instructed, pointing the boy towards a bare patch of dirt where nothing could burn.

"Your sister is a good teacher," Kakashi observed to Itachi as they stood in the shade for a moment, taking a quick break.

"Hai. She taught me, and now she teaches Sasuke. She has infinitely more patience than Tou-san ever did, and a gently guiding hand like Kaa-san never quite mastered," Itachi answered. "I'm only considered a genius because Fukurou nee-san taught me when I was little, and the same for Sasuke. She's the real prodigy, but she's kind and helpful as well."

Kakashi's visible eyebrow rose in quiet surprise. He had never suspected that the Uchiha boys were only as good as they were because their sister taught them, he'd just thought it ran in the family. From the sounds of it, their father hadn't realised the truth either.

"Who was her genin-instructor?" he asked. Perhaps she had learned how to teach from her teacher.

"She was apprenticed to Morino Ibiki when she was six. She was going to be placed on a regular genin team, like you were, but the mission in England came up, and she had a pile of that magic the wizards use, as well as regular chakra, so Morino-san recommended that she take the mission rather than be attached to a genin squad when she was already a chuunin, and she could learn how to interact with people her own age while still learning about this other energy source that she had. A few years ago she took the jounin exam while she was home on a break from her mission," Itachi explained, smiling as he watched his Onee-san showing his nii-chan how to breathe a fire-ball without hurting, charring or burning himself in the process.

Kakashi didn't respond to that. He honestly couldn't think of Ibiki giving lessons to anybody in anything and them coming out of it as pleasant as Uchiha-san had seemed to. He settled for just watching her to see if he could figure it out.

"First do it slowly, she'll be telling him. Do it slowly and correctly. Speed will come with practice. First get it right," Itachi added when he noticed Kakashi watching the lesson intently.

"Good advice to give while there is time to take it," he agreed. "But sometimes you have to learn things fast, or you die."

"If you rush your learning, you will die faster from your own foolishness!" Fukurou yelled over at them, her black eyes dancing.

"Uh... how did...?" Kakashi stammered.

"I have no idea," Itachi answered, just as shocked.

Fukurou and Sasuke finished up and joined the two men already under the tree – one older and one younger than Fukurou.

"Alright Sasuke-chan, I have a mission for you," Fukurou said, smiling. "You are to do a sweep and attempt to discover how I was able to hear what these two were talking about. Succeed, and I'll give you a little money to buy yourself something when we go shopping."

Beaming, Sasuke began scouring the area as only an eight-year-old would, and the three older shinobi watched him silently. This was also good learning for him – searching for something that he had no idea what it looked like, or where it might be except for that it was likely in the general area. He even climbed the tree in his search, though he had needed to ask for a lift to get to the first branch, which Fukurou had happily given him.

"I can't find anything," he called out at last, coming down to the lowest branch once more, where he hung for a moment before dropping into Fukurou's waiting arms.

"And you looked everywhere?" she questioned.

The child nodded, and Fukurou smirked.

"Would you turn around Otouto?" she requested, looking up at Itachi.

Confused, but trusting his sister, Itachi did as he was asked, looking over his shoulder as he did so.

"No fair!" Sasuke cried out.

Fukurou laughed. "Of course not, Sasuke-chan, that's the idea."

Kakashi chuckled as well, and wondered how he hadn't seen the ear stuck to the back of Itachi's shirt when they were sparring, though he wasn't sure how it worked.

Fukurou removed the ear from the shirt and a small, clear tab that had been stuck to the skin just behind her own ear. "An invention of the Weasley Twins," she said by way of explanation. Having already told them about the Weasley family as part of the mission explanation she had given them, the matter needed no further elaboration. It was an early prototype for an upgrade of the Extendible Ear, and worked much better in her opinion.


	3. Chapter 3

When Kakashi emerged from his room the next morning, he was surprised to see that Fukurou-san was an even earlier riser than him, and he got up at dawn to visit the memorial. Making up his mind to ask about it later, he left her undisturbed and made his way to the great black stone with names carved all over it. Of course, just because he hadn't stopped to talk to her about it first, didn't mean that he wasn't going to talk to Obito about it when he got to the Memorial Stone.

"I'd wonder if you were even an Uchiha if I'd met this girl before I met you," he said to his friend's name where it was carved upon the stone. "She was up this morning before me, just meditating on the dirt. She seems so disciplined..." and for a few minutes he continued, talking to the black rock about nothing in particular, before he headed back, his stomach objecting to his having left without breakfast.

Fukurou hadn't moved, still sitting cross-legged on the swept dirt, eyes closed and her breathing regular. Itachi had joined her though, and Sasuke looked like he was about to sit as well, though he was rubbing sleep from his eyes as he lowered his small frame to the ground.

"Fuu-nee-san?" the boy asked, looking over at the eldest sibling.

"Seek out your chakra, Sasuke-chan. Learn the feeling of it, know the shape of it, meditate upon its nature within you," she directed softly, not opening her eyes.

Kakashi wondered if she set a different task for the boy each morning, or if this was something new for the child. Either way, it was a good discipline. Thinking a moment, he decided breakfast to be more important at that moment, and headed off to the freshly-cleaned-just-yesterday kitchen, stocked with food bought yesterday afternoon, and decided to break a few eggs and make an omelette.

It was a few seconds away from done when Itachi and Sasuke arrived, clearly led by their noses.

"Is Uchiha-san not going to join us for breakfast?" Kakashi asked as he served up rice and omelette to the two younger males.

"Fukurou nee-san will meditate for a while longer yet," Itachi answered.

"She meditates for _hours_ every day. Aniki usually does an hour every morning, and I'm just starting, so Fuu-nee-san says I can go have breakfast even though I only meditated for a little while. I know I'd improve faster if I could get the hang of meditating, but ..."

"But you're a growing boy, and full of restless energy," Kakashi said, smiling beneath his mask. "I suppose that is fair enough. So, what are you going to be doing today?" he asked as he sat down to his own breakfast.

"This one has Academy," Itachi said, jerking slightly to indicate Sasuke. "I'll probably go to the missions office," he added. "Best to keep busy I think."

Kakashi nodded. For Itachi, it probably _was_ best if he kept himself busy, though it was highly probable that he would not enjoy the C- to A-ranked missions he was allotted. After ANBU, everything seemed very dull for a while, unless the client was lying and they were more dangerous than the office had been led to believe.

"What will you do today Senpai?" Itachi asked as he wiped some rice from his chin.

"Probably some training before I have an appointment with Iruka-san. Something about unattached jounin getting new genin teams soon. You should feel fortunate that you have permission from the Hokage to get out of this tedious task. Unless I go on a mission very soon, or the kids fail, I'm going to be training a bunch of genin."

"Yeah! Next week is the exam where we can become genin at last!" Sasuke enthused, grinning largely, not really noticing that Kakashi seemed very unenthusiastic. "I tried taking it last year, you know, trying to graduate early, but they're a lot tougher on you if you try and get out of the Academy early."

After that, breakfast passed in silence until, just as they had nearly finished eating, the calm was shattered by an angry voice yelling "_What_ do you _think_ you're _doing_?"

"Uh-oh," Sasuke said. "Someone got Fuu-nee-san mad while she was meditating."

"Never good," Itachi agreed. "Come on, we'd better go save whoever upset her," he said solemnly, rising from the table.

"Not because we want to help them, but because Fuu-nee-san would get in really big trouble if she killed someone in the village," Sasuke explained to the Copy-nin, as he hopped down from his chair and followed his older brother. "Even worse than Aniki has."

Kakashi sat stunned for only the space of time it took him to think _this I gotta see_, and then he was following them, breakfast forgotten.

Of all the possibilities, Kakashi had certainly not expected to see Uchiha-san standing in the open gate with an off-white stick in her hands pointing slightly up as she glared at a collection of people who were suspended in the air, most of them upside-down and awkward looking. Beneath them, curled up in a defensive ball on the other side of the road, was an orange and red lump. Clearly the other two Uchiha's hadn't exactly expected this either, as they had stopped dead and were just staring as well, mouths hanging slightly open.

"The demon is a menace and should be killed before it can do any more damage to the village!" yelled one of the suspended bodies, a civilian whose face was nearly purple with rage.

Ah, now he understood what had happened. It was another case of Naruto getting caught by vindictive villagers. It was simply unfortunate for them that their noise had disturbed Uchiha-san; it was even more unfortunate that she clearly didn't like the answer she had just been given.

"He's a _child_. If you continue to give him reason to hate the village, I don't doubt he _will_ do something unpleasant one day, and it would be completely justified when the time comes," she hissed back, flicking the stick in her hand slightly and dropping the group of civilians on the ground a good ten feet away from Naruto. Her next action was to cross the street and pick up the bloodied child gently before returning to Kakashi's gate, clearly breathing deeply to regain her composure.

"Please forgive me, Hatake-san, but may I care for the child on your premises?" she asked politely, though she still wasn't smiling again yet. "Or would you prefer that I take him to the hospital for his care?"

"Of course you can treat him here," Kakashi answered. "I don't trust hospitals with my own injuries, I certainly wouldn't trust them with his."

"Thank you very much," she said, bowing, careful not to jostle the child. "Sasuke-chan, come with me. You are going to learn about healing," she added to her youngest brother. It was an instruction, not a suggestion.

"But Fuu-nee-san, it's the dobe! And I have to go to the Academy!" Sasuke protested, even as he followed her.

"You know this boy?" she asked. "And you won't have to stay for the whole process."

"He's in my class. He's an idiot."

Kakashi chuckled at that, and noticed that Itachi snorted, biting his lip to keep in any further laughter.

"Want to watch the lesson Senpai?" the middle Uchiha asked, gesturing towards the room where Fukurou was settling Naruto.

"Sure," Kakashi answered. "Especially if it could keep me out of the hospital."

Itachi snorted against laughter again, and nodded.

Fukurou only made Sasuke watch one healing technique before writing a note for Sasuke to carry to his teacher about Naruto's absence, and having Itachi walk Sasuke to school before he went to the missions office.

Rather than training, as he had suggested at breakfast, Kakashi found himself watching Uchiha Fukurou as she treated the battered child, and then laughing as he went to make more breakfast when her stomach rumbled in neglect. She ate daintily, but voraciously at the same time.

They cleaned up the breakfast dishes together and returned to check on the child.

"He looks like Minato-sensei," Kakashi said quietly.

"Well, he is his son," Fukurou pointed out, her own voice just as quiet.

"I never -" Kakashi's words stuck in his throat. "What will you do when he wakes up?"

Fukurou sighed. "Take him to the Academy probably, definitely report the villagers who were abusing him to the Hokage."

"And after? Let him return to wherever it is he has been living? You know most of the people in this village don't much care for him. They see only the Kyuubi that Minato-sensei sealed in him, not the child."

"Would you be willing to let him stay here?" suggested the Uchiha, slightly surprised.

Kakashi seemed just as surprised by the idea as well, but it grew on him as he thought about it. "I owe Minato-sensei a debt, I shall pay it to his son. I'll find him a room of his own."

Naruto woke up in time for lunch, and when they asked him if he would like to live with them, he had been overjoyed. The two jounin walked the boy to the Academy when they had finished eating and cleaning up, and left Naruto with his class while they went to the meeting with Iruka about getting genin teams.

~oOo~

"U-Uchiha Fukurou-san! I hadn't expected you!" Iruka yelped when Kakashi and Fukurou entered the meeting room.

"Well, I did just get back yesterday, so I _am_ an unattached jounin," Fukurou answered. "Unless you need another teacher for the kids?" she added.

Iruka shook his head. "Not at this time of year."

Fukurou nodded her understanding before remembering something else. "Did Sasuke-chan give you my note about -?"

"Yes, thank you very much for that," Iruka said, obviously grateful. It was clearly a relief that the reason for Naruto's absence wasn't some grand prank, again.

"Ahem," coughed another jounin in the room. "If we could get this over with?" he growled.

"Ah, my apologies," Iruka said, smiling weakly. "Uh yes. Now, it is expected that every student will pass the final exam this year, and there are a couple of younger students who seem intent on graduating early. You are all required to make a list of five students you would be happy to take as your genin. It is rare that any jounin gets all of their first choices, and sometimes it happens that you will be given a student that you would not have originally thought to have on your team ..."

Fukurou had her entire focus upon Iruka as he explained the process. Some of these jounin had heard it before, probably most of them, but she hadn't, so she was paying very close attention.

It was possible that they would, in the end, not need to worry about a genin team at all, more students could fail than anticipated. They were required to give their students another test before the students would really become genin. A minimum of ten D-ranked missions were required before the genin would be permitted a C-rank. A minimum of fifteen D-ranked missions and one C-ranked mission were mandatory before genin could be nominated for the chuunin exam, though it was perfectly reasonable, and even sensible, to _not_ enter completely green genin into the first chuunin exam they were eligible to enter. It was important to not show favouritism to any of the genin, but to maximise the potential of all three members of the team, and so on went the mini-lecture from the Academy's most popular teacher. Then they were all given a class list and taken to the sidelines of the training yard the students were using.

"Would it be pointless for me to put your brother on my list?" Kakashi asked Fukurou. "Or will you want to have him as your genin, so that you can teach him how to use his sharingan when it emerges?"

"I will teach him how to use his sharingan _if_ it emerges, in the times before and after he is under instruction from his new sensei," Fukurou answered. "I couldn't have him on my first team, but how do you think Hyuuga Hiyashi-sama would feel if I were jounin instructor to his eldest daughter?" she chuckled, pointing to the girl with the pearl eyes in a further corner of the training area.

"I'd pay money to see his reaction," he answered with a chuckle of his own.

When had they become companionable like this? They barely knew each other, and still called each other Uchiha-san and Hatake-san. Well, it was a pleasant sort of chatter they had now at any rate.

"Ooh, I like that kid's attitude," Fukurou said, pointing out one student who was just lazing on the ground and watching the clouds go by.

Kakashi watched as the teacher yelled at the kid to get up. He then pulled a kunai from his pouch and stood up, facing the target, threw his kunai and lay back down again. The kunai had hit the centre of the target.

"Another one for your school of doing it slowly and getting it right, Uchiha-san?" he asked.

"Absa-balley-lutely," she answered, writing the name down on her list with the Hyuuga.

"Naruto looks like he needs a few lessons of that kind," Kakashi pointed out with a dry chuckle.

The blond was throwing his kunai at the target as fast as he could. Most of them were wide of the mark, though a couple were stuck in the edges.

"Oh dear," Fukurou said, stifling laughter. "I think you're right Hatake-san."

The Copy-nin wrote the boy's name on his list. The Uchiha just made a silent promise to start teaching him when they got home that day.

Fukurou added Inuzuka Kiba, Haruno Sakura and Aburame Shino to her little list and handed it over to Iruka with a smile before returning to watch the students and striking up a conversation with Yuhi Kurenai, a new jounin who wasn't very confident about getting a team of genin just yet, but nevertheless determined to do her best with them. She noticed that Kurenai had both Sasuke and Hinata down on her list of students she would like to teach. Chuckling to herself, Fukurou hoped that this woman was put in charge of her youngest brother rather than Kakashi, no offence to the man of course, she just thought that, perhaps, it would be good for Sasuke to learn a different set of disciplines than the ones Kakashi would teach him.

~oOo~

"Hokage-sama," Fukurou said when she presented herself to the head of the village, a bright coloured blob hanging off her. "I wish to adopt Uzumaki Naruto into the Uchiha family."

Sarutobi's jaw dropped, his pipe falling onto the papers on his desk.

"How does Hatake-san feel about this? You are living on his estate at the moment after all," he hemmed when he had regained his composure.

"He's already picked out a room for Naruto-chan to use," Fukurou answered, just a little smug.

The Sandaime nodded.

"Very well then. You have my approval. I shall send you the papers so that Uzumaki Naruto will be known as Uchiha Naruto, and he will be _your_ responsibility."

"I shall not falter."

~oOo~

Sasuke and Naruto weren't to keen at first to learn that they were living together, but the resentment quickly died away when Fukurou got them training. She had to repeat herself a few times before Naruto understood the concept of doing it slowly and getting it perfect rather than doing it fast and getting it kind of okay, but he got there, and once he did he was excelling quickly, which surprised Sasuke and caused a competition to flare up.

"If one of them starts yelling 'rival' at the other, I will hit him," Kakashi said when he approached Fukurou at the training area on the Hatake compound.

"I promise, I will not allow either of them to get a bowl cut, wear a spandex suit, or cry at sunsets," she answered, aware that Kakashi had issue with Maito Gai being an idiot in his direction. "If they do, you have full permission to pummel them into the ground."

"Thank you," Kakashi said with a restrained chuckle.

~oOo~

When Fukurou woke up in the morning, she went immediately to drag Naruto out of bed to join her in meditation. This was something that she knew he needed, badly. He was too hyper, to inclined to bounce from one thing to another before he had properly mastered it. The kid needed control, and she told him as much.

"But it's still dark!" he protested, rubbing his eyes.

"When you get high-level missions some day Naruto, you may need to wake up a midnight, perform your task, and then run as fast as you can back to Konohagakure, or you will end up in a world of pain. Now, you are going to meditate on your chakra. The feeling of it, the flow of it, the very nature of it. How much chakra you have, and where it comes from. You had lessons in this in the Academy, didn't you?" Fukurou instructed sternly.

Naruto nodded sleepily. "Why is it so important?" he asked.

"Naruto," Fukurou sighed, mentally preparing herself to quietly break an unwritten law of Konohagakure. "Do you remember the story of the fight between the Fourth Hokage and the Kyuubi?"

"He killed the Kyuubi, but died himself, and the village was saved," Naruto answered with a nod.

Fukurou shook her head. "He _trapped_ the Kyuubi, dying as he performed the final seal that would hold the nine-tails inside his own son."

"The Kyuubi is still alive?" Naruto asked, surprised.

Fukurou nodded. "Alive, trapped, and a powerhouse of chakra to the child who contains him, but his chakra will be disruptive, and will make control difficult without meditation. Now, I haven't been around the village much for the last eight years, but from what I hear, the villagers call you a demon a lot," she said, leading the child on to think heavily.

"I'm the son of the Fourth?" he asked at last. "He sealed the Kyuubi inside of me?"

"Hatake-san has said that you look a great deal like his sensei, Namikaze Minato, who was the Fourth," Fukurou said, neither confirming or denying straight out. "Now, through meditation you can gain a firmer control and understanding of your chakra. You will be able to perform ninjutsu far easier than you currently do – and don't pretend making bunshin isn't difficult for you," she snapped quietly. "Now, meditate upon your chakra."

Silence reigned between them as Kakashi left to greet the dawn at the memorial stone, and as Itachi joined them shortly after. Kakashi returned and Sasuke joined them in meditation, and then Itachi and Sasuke were released to go to breakfast. Naruto was not, but he needed to ask Fukurou something anyway.

"Fukurou-san, I- I think I've found the- the Kyuubi," he said tentatively.

Fukurou nodded. "Good, it is important to know everything about yourself, but Naruto," she cautioned, "That you contain the Kyuubi is a secret. You cannot tell anybody this, do you understand?"

Naruto nodded.

"Alright, now you may go have breakfast," she allowed, smiling gently at the blur that was the boy running to the kitchen before she resumed her own meditation.

~oOo~

Fukurou was pleased to receive Kurenai for lunch that day, and served tea for the other woman in the room Kakashi had given her for official meetings with clan elders.

The conversation started off discussing the test the genin would go through – two bells, three students, and the sensei – but had moved on easily enough to girl talk and missions. Kurenai had been very curious about the mission that had Fukurou basically away from Konoha for eight years.

The Uchiha woman had obligingly whipped out her wand and performed a few tricks that couldn't be done with jutsu and chakra.

"It really is just for around the house stuff though," Fukurou lamented with a grin. "Magic isn't practical, not really. It's good for cooking, cleaning, menial chores and getting stains out of clothes. There are some potions and spells I learned that can heal better than most medic-nin, but..."

A little while after that, Kurenai asked the question that had been burning in her mind since she had heard Fukurou explain about her long-term mission: "So did you learn to ride a broomstick?"

Fukurou laughed. "Would you like to try?" she offered, rising from her cushion.

Nodding, Kurenai followed Fukurou to her room, where a polished broomstick was mounted on the wall above a collection of swords. "I'd rather Sasuke-chan started playing with swords than the broomstick," Fukurou quickly explained as she got the thing down.

"For safety's sake, I'll drive and you can hang on behind me," Fukurou said. "I'm not taking it high or fast, but it's easy to do if you've never flown before, and I'd just as soon _not_ have the village wondering about someone riding a broomstick around."

Kurenai nodded her agreement and, once Fukurou had the broomstick in the air and was hovering at waist height above the ground, Kurenain hopped on and held tight. A couple of laps around the compound later, and the two young women were laughing happily. Okay, they hadn't gone as fast as the Nimbus 2001 _could have_, but they had by no means just drifted around. They'd even surprised Kakashi where he was practising his taijutsu.

"I want one," Kurenai said once she'd hopped off, a stupid grin still on her face.

Fukurou shrugged. "After graduation, I'm taking Itachi, Sasuke and Naruto to Diagon Alley as a treat, you're welcome to come along if you like. Broomsticks are fairly expensive, but if you take care of them, they're worth it."

"May I come too?" the silver-haired man asked. "That does look like fun, and a good way to get past defences undetected."

"Of course you can, Hatake-san," Fukurou agreed, determined that the colour on her cheeks was not a blush, she was just exhilarated from the flight.


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto was ecstatic to have passed his exam when he returned to the Hatake estate, and Sasuke was close to smiling as well as he walked in, his headband in place on his brow.

"Fukurou-san! Your meditation stuff really helped!" the loud boy yelled as he tackled the woman.

"Good, but you keep it up. Just because you passed doesn't mean you can stop training," she said, messing up his already messy hair. "Congratulations Sasuke-chan, Naruto-chan. Now, as soon as Itachi-chan and Hatake-san to get back from the Hokage-building, we're all going out. I've got a treat planned as a reward for graduating."

"Do you think Hatake will be on time?" asked a woman standing in the open gate. "He does have a nasty habit of being late."

"Itachi-chan is with him, I'm sure they'll be here, Kurenai-san," Fukurou answered with a smile. "I need to introduce you. Sasuke-chan, Naruto-chan, this is my friend Yuhi Kurenai, she's going to come with us as well."

"Hello Yuhi-san," the boys said, bowing politely. It had taken more work than getting Naruto to take things slowly, to get him to use manners. It wasn't until Fukurou was teasing Sasuke for being so well behaved and nice that all the girls in class must love him that Naruto had declared he would not be defeated, and resolved to have better manners than Sasuke. Itachi and Sasuke had laughed at the passionate avowal, Kakashi had looked horrified – Naruto had reminded him of Gai in that moment, and he was only glad the boy had not used the word 'rival', or it would have been too much – and Fukurou had nodded. His etiquette lessons had begun immediately after dinner. He was still loud and big-hearted though. It was unlikely that years of etiquette lessons would change that.

"Hello Sasuke-san, Naruto-san, it is a pleasure to meet you both," Kurenai answered.

"Are we ready then?" Itachi asked, appearing in the puff of smoke that denoted a teleportation jutsu, another beside him clearing to reveal Kakashi, exactly on time.

"If you've got the Hokage's signature," Fukurou answered.

Kakashi handed over the document with said scribble, and Fukurou withdrew her wand. A quick incantation and the scroll was a portkey.

"Everybody is to touch the paper. I know it's strange, but just do it," she added, fixing her eye on Itachi, who wasn't so sure about this. "When we land, do _not_ draw any of your weapons. We are pretending to be civilians." Fukurou waited until she got nods from everybody, then said the word that would activate the portkey and take them to the alley hidden behind the Leakey Cauldron; "genin."

~oOo~

The four jounin and two genin landed in Diagon Alley with a bit of a thump, but mostly on their feet.

"That was deeply disconcerting," Kakashi stated. "Must we use that thing to get back?"

Fukurou nodded. "I'm afraid so," she answered. "Now come on, we have to go to the bank and change our money, after that..." Fukurou pursed her mouth as she considered. "We can break up into groups of three, do some shopping, then meet back here in about ... four hours?" she suggested.

"Sounds good to me," Itachi said.

"Likewise," Kurenai added.

Kakashi and the kids just nodded their agreement.

Fukurou nodded. "One more thing," she said, and cast a translation charm. "Going shopping and not being able to ask the price for something wouldn't be fun," she explained.

A quick exchange in Gringotts left the six shinobi with a small fortune to spend, and Itachi went off with Sasuke and Naruto – just as excited as them, though he didn't show it – to find some things to spend their money on.

Fukurou led Kakashi and Kurenai to the Quidditch shop, where they would be able to get broomsticks. From the attitude of the service man when he saw Fukurou, she guess Itachi and the boys had already been through, and spent money. Though she had a broomstick already, she picked out another three while the service man helped Kakashi and Kurenai pick out broomsticks that would suit them, and picked up a couple of snitches while she was at it, then joined her friends and started haggling the price. Since they were buying so much, she managed to get the snitches free and one of the broomsticks at a heavy discount. The poor man was sweating when the deal was done though.

Kakashi and Kurenai weren't sure what to look at next though, as all they'd known when they arrived was that they wanted to try flying, so they let Fukurou lead them into another shop, this one called Weasley Wheezes.

"Will you be alright to look around on your own for a while?" Fukurou asked her companions, aware that all the magical civilians could be disturbing to the shinobi. "I want to talk to the owners for a moment, and it's going to be a tricky conversation."

They both nodded firmly and returned to staring at the shelves in awe of some of the gags they saw, hoping that Naruto never tried any of this stuff back at Konoha.

"Excuse me miss," a voice said from behind her.

"But would you perhaps be," continued another similar, but slightly different voice.

"A relation of Hermione Granger?" the first voice finished

"Only, you look kind of like her," added the second voice.

Fukurou steeled herself, and turned around.

"You _could_ say that," she said, in her Hermione Granger voice, plastering on the smile the bushy-haired phantom wore, as she faced Fred and George Weasley. "Except that it's actually a lot more complicated."

"Hermione," the twins breathed in shock. Even completely numb they were still in sync.

"Yep," she answered sadly. "You can't tell though. Not Harry, not Ron, not Ginny or anybody," she insisted.

"What are you doing here?" George asked.

"You _died_," Fred added.

"No, I just faked my death," she told them.

Both of them had horrified expressions on their faces. It was more terrifying than seeing a ghost the first time. They had known she was dead, but here was someone with her face and voice, if different hair and eyes, and they didn't know what to think.

"I'm sure you two have an office, can we talk privately?"

They nodded and, one in front of her, the other behind, led her up some stairs into a room with books along one wall and what looked suspiciously like a muggle chemistry set on a table against another.

"My name is Fukurou Uchiha, I am a shinobi, a ninja, I was hired to aid and protect Harry through his school years by Professor Snape," she laughed a moment at their expressions. "The potions master was rather distrusting of a few of the teachers, so he wrote to my home, hired me to be a bodyguard, and proceeded to act, very well, as though he didn't give a damn about Harry, or know that I was capable to ripping him a new one. He let me get away with helping Neville through Potions because I had expressed my own interest to become a teacher to him in the initial interview, though he still docked points publicly. My becoming a prefect was a conspired effort between Snape and McGonagall so that I would be able to keep an eye on the whole school easily, as well as Harry. At no point did Dumbledore know of my background, or of the existence of my people, or he might have tried hiring a couple more himself. Have I covered everything or do you have questions?"

The silence of the room was set off by the bustling of customers downstairs.

"Why did you fake your death?" Fred demanded at last.

"So that Harry and Ron wouldn't look for me, and if I'd just left, they would have, you know they would. My home country is no more safe for them than it is for a mouse to walk into an owl's nest," Fukurou answered.

"Then why come back now?" George asked, quietly.

"I wanted to do some shopping, and you'll notice I'm not wearing the wig or coloured contacts that really defined me as Hermione Granger. You both thought I was a relative of a dead girl until I answered you."

"So you'll be leaving again," Fred mumbled, clearly unhappy.

Fukurou nodded.

"Can we visit you sometimes?" George asked.

She sighed. "Best if you don't, but if you've got work for a shinobi... I could make you a portkey that will take you to my home village, the gates if I'm not actually there, or a place with some space near to whereever I am if I'm not on a mission."

Fred immediately fetched a picture frame from the wall, Hermione Granger, with her bushy hair and brown eyes, smiling and waving encouragingly from the photograph within.

Fukurou nodded, and made the spell, then handed it back.

"Granger to take you to my village, Weasley to bring you back again," she said. "Please don't tell anybody that I'm not dead, not even if it's an emergency."

Fred and George nodded, reluctantly, but they agreed all the same.

~oOo~

"How'd it go?" Kakashi asked when Fukurou rejoined him and Kurenai in the main area of the shop.

"Badly, which I expected, but I think it's fixed now," she answered, smiling a little tiredly. "See anything you wanted to buy?" she asked, wanting to change the subject.

"You're behind the times," Kurenai said, smiling. "We did our shopping while you did your talking."

"We didn't get as good a deal as you might have," Kakashi added, the smirk in his voice obvious, even if the one on his face was hidden by his mask.

"I won't be long then," Fukurou promised, chuckling. She whipped around the shop, grabbing up at least one of everything there, before she headed to the cash register. George served her.

"And one of everything you're hiding out back please," she asked, a cheeky smile on her face like the prankster had never seen her wear at Hogwarts, or even during vacation. He was used to Hermione being the serious one.

"What sort of party are you planning?" he asked when he came back with the back-room wares in a bag.

"I do solemnly swear," Fukurou said with a smile, "That I am up to no good."

That got George chuckling. "Now why weren't you ever like this back at school?" he asked.

"I was working. I had mission stipulations, classes to pass, and the knowledge that if I returned home to my father with anything less than perfection, I'd be in for it. Dad was obsessive that way," Fukurou answered, smile twisting slightly. "But it's over now, and I'm soon to become a teacher."

"You know, there's a look in your eyes when you say that, makes me think the kids are gonna be in terrified awe of you."

"Well, I _am_ the only fully qualified witch in ... probably the whole country. Oh, and do you do mail-orders?"

"Afraid not," George answered with a chuckle. "Never know who's going to get up to what if we don't talk to the customer when they're buying it."

She paid, waved goodbye, and joined Kakashi and Kurenai, who were waiting for her near the door, considering a box full of ears.

"How are we going for time?" Kakashi asked, which surprised Kurenai, since she was used to him being late rather than time-aware.

"We said four hours, spent half an hour getting broomsticks, forty-five minutes at Weasley Wheezes..." Fukurou followed the direction Kakashi's single eye was pointing. "That gives us three hours to lose ourselves in the bookshop if you want, with fifteen minutes to get back," she offered, smirking. "Though I don't think we'll need quite _all_ of those three hours."

Kakashi made a rapid bee-line for the bookshop.

Fukurou laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and braced her hands on her knees as she took deep, calming breaths.

"What?" Kurenai prodded.

"The chances are fairly high that Hatake-san won't be able to read most of those books when the translation charm I've used for this little shopping trip wears off, and I don't think he has realised that just yet," Fukurou answered, still smiling.

Kurenai slapped a hand over her own mouth to stifle her laughter.

"Ooh, that is cruel, Fukurou-san, and I like it. Shall we follow him then?"

"Yes, let's. There are a few things I want to study further anyway, and I _can_ read the language without a translation charm."

~oOo~

After the book store, they visited the Magical Menagerie, and Kurenai went into Ollivander's – she wanted to learn how to clean the house without having to break her back doing it, and once Fukurou had confirmed that there was just enough of a magical spark in the woman that it was possible, all that was needed was a wand – before they all returned to the rendezvous point and waited for Itachi, Sasuke and Naruto.

"I think that I am officially confused," Kurenai said as she looked into the bag she was carrying. "I bought tons of stuff, how does it all fit into this _one_ bag? Even the broomstick?"

"It's a spell. The inside of the bag is larger than the outside, so it fits more stuff, and then the bag is also spelled to be light, so you don't feel weighed down by your purchases. It's sort of an encouragement to buy. You always slow down or stop shopping when your arms are tired from carrying the bags, but if you've only got one very light bag that somehow fits everything, you aren't so worried about having to carry your purchases, because it isn't a problem," Fukurou explained.

"Good trick," Kurenai observed.

"A bit lazy, but a good business idea," Kakashi agreed.

Itachi, Sasuke and Naruto returned at that moment, wearing grins that caused the adults to worry slightly.

"Let's get home, and then we can talk about what we bought over dinner," Fukurou said, wanting to know specifics quickly, but aware that her stomach was rumbling and she really _didn't_ want to suffer through more deep-fried British food if she could help it.

Taking out the paper that was the portkey, the same one with the Hokage's signature that had been used before, everybody checked their grips on their bags and took an edge of the paper. Fukurou stated "jounin" and the unpleasant tugging behind the navel sensation took the shinobi of the leaf back to the Hatake estate. Once again, there was a slight drop to the landing.

"We're never travelling that way again," Kakashi stated flatly.

Fukurou shrugged. "No reason to, if you have no intention or reason to go to London ever again. Come on, let's get the food started and have a look at our spoils."

Sasuke was immediately behind a bouncing Naruto as they went into the house and sat down at the dining table, putting their bags up in front of them in readiness.

Shaking her head, Fukurou decided nabe would be a good dinner option and pulled out the large pot. She poured in the water, added the noodles and meat, zapped it with a quick spell that heated the pot and stirred the spoon in it, effectively cooking the contents as she carried it out to the centre of the dining table, then added the vegetables with everybody watching. Like ramen, but not. The pot continued to stir itself as it sat on the heat-pad in the centre of the table. Itachi set out bowls, spoons and chopsticks while Fukurou brought out the cups, the water jug and the tea pot.

"Itadakimas!" chorused around the table, and Fukurou used her wand to direct bowls closer to the pot so that the spoon could serve everybody without spilling.

"Wow Fuu-nee-san! That's really cool!" Sasuke said, for a moment forgetting that he was a broody eleven-year-old genin. Magic tended to do that.

"Yeah, but it's lazy,"she answered. "We've all had a good day today though, so I think a few extra magic tricks aren't going to hurt. Who wants to show off what they bought first?"

"I do!" Naruto yelled, raising his hand and grinning.

The adults all smiled, indulgent and happy, but refraining from laughing at the loud boy.

"Alright Naruto, lay it out on the table and show off. Where did you three go today?" Fukurou asked, directing the last question to Itachi.

"I think we went everywhere," he answered. "Except for the shop that sold 'robes', and I talked them out of going to look at wands. Not that we _bought_ things from everywhere, mind you."

Naruto produced a broomstick from his bag, as well as several kilos worth of sweets, some of which Fukurou recognised as Weasley products. Examining them, she was glad to see that Naruto hadn't picked up any Tonne Tongue Toffees, just sweets that would cause a person's skin, eyes, tongue or hair to change colour for a while. There was a soft toy toad, a feather quill, and a pair of dragon-hide gloves. Sasuke had many of the same things; broomstick, sweets, Weasley prank sweets (again, Fukurou was glad to see no Tonne Tongue Toffees), a soft toy owl, and a dragon-hide protective vest. Itachi's turn came and there was a bit more variety. Yes he had a broomstick and sweets, but he's also bought a few of the more interesting joke items from the Weasley twins' shop, things that he might be able to use on missions rather than just their candy, as well as a few fireworks and a pair of fingerless dragon-hide gloves.

"Dare I ask the intent for the fireworks?" Fukurou asked when she saw them.

"They're for when you and Kakashi-senpai get married," the fifteen-year-old said, grinning in a very un-Uchiha-Itachi-like way.

Fukurou blushed deeply, and Kakashi coughed, choking on the food he had been eating, his own face red as well when he had finally cleared his throat and swallowed properly.

Kurenai and the other three laughed hugely, all of them pointing out their blushes and yelling about how they really _did_ love each other after all.

"That's it, instead of meditating in the morning, you boys are running _laps_ around the village wall," Fukurou growled. "_Fifty_, _before dawn_," she added.

Her brothers and Naruto gulped in fear, their laughter cut off.

Fukurou then turned her black gaze to Kurenai. "For you, I will think up some kind of cruel punishment later," she promised.

Kurenai waved the threat aside cheerfully. "Oh calm down, it's only a bit of harmless teasing. See, Kakashi-san doesn't mind," the red-eyed woman said, smiling as she gestured to Kakashi, not really looking at him.

"Kurenai-san," Kakashi said, a tenseness in his voice that bespoke large amounts of self control. "I wouldn't jump to any conclusions."

Surprised, Kurenai looked over at the silver-haired shinobi, only to get a Weasley product being shot into her slightly open mouth. She swallowed in surprise, and her hair abruptly changed from raven black to carrot-top orange. Picking up a lock between her fingers, Kurenai groaned.

"This colour clashes with my eyes," she lamented, covering her red orbs. "I hope it wears off soon."

A very light chuckle circulated around the table at the young woman's dramatics, and they comfortably moved on to what else Kakashi had in his bag apart from the sweet he'd already force-fed to Kurenai.

"Just more of the same," he said, refraining from withdrawing his purchases. "And a few books. Didn't get anything made from dragon skin though. I don't think I'm really the animal-skin type."

Kurenai, however, happily pulled her wand out of her bag, and begged Fukurou to give her a lesson right at the table.

Fukurou agreed, and explained about the importance of enunciation and the correct movement of the wand, before picking out a simple spell, and one that would doubtless come in handy to a jounin about to become an instructor with three genin to train.

Pointing at the mess Naruto had made of himself as he ate – it wasn't much of a mess, but it was available – Fukurou used the spell "_Scourgify_," making the boy spotless, even removing a layer of grime from his skin no one had realised was there. Fukurou shook her head. Either the boy hadn't bathed – which was unlikely, as he didn't stink as he would have if that were the case – or London was truly a dirty city, even in Diagon Alley.

She gestured for Kurenai to try the spell on Sasuke, who while free of any remnants of food, still looked a bit like he'd walked through a quick soot shower compared to Naruto who sat next to him, clean.

Kurenai was pleased when the spell worked for her just as it had for Fukurou, though it took her second attempt to make it work. She had attempted to channel her chakra for the spell, and it had simply not worked. The pathways, Fukurou explained, interfered with each other. Magic had nothing to do with chakra, but chakra did short out magic. It was a lesson she had learned from necessity, and one of the reasons why she spent so much extra time meditating. She didn't just meditate on her chakra, she meditated on her magic as well. She refrained from mentioning that she also took the time in the mornings to meditate on her emotions, allowing herself to feel all the pain she stamped down on a daily basis. It helped with the nightmares.

"That spell," Fukurou added once Kurenai had performed it correctly, "will clean anything. Skin, clothes, hair, floors, cushions, _anything_, but I wouldn't use it on your new broomstick. It might clean off the charm that makes the broomstick capable of flight. I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't try it."


	5. Chapter 5

Fukurou was shopping for groceries when a chuunin delivered a summons for her. She was to go to the Academy and collect a 'Team 9'. Ah yes, the boys had mentioned that today was Orientation Day. They didn't really know what that meant, but they had been excited all the same. Clearly it was time for the jounins to come and collect their teams. She finished up her shopping, took it back to the Hatake estate and, making sure Kakashi was also coming – as he was being assigned a team as well – headed off to the Academy where their new teams of genin awaited them.

Kurenai was waiting there as well, her hair finally black again after the better part of a week, her slip of paper stating that she had 'Team 8'. She was talking to a bearded man she introduced to Fukurou as Asuma. The man apparently had 'Team 10'.

Kakashi stepped into the room to collect his team first of the three of them – he had 'Team 7'. He was happy to see Naruto stand up, enthusiastic and ready to go, especially since he knew his sensei, though he was slightly less pleased to see Yamanaka's daughter stand up as well – he liked her dad, had worked with him, but the girl was unfortunately prideful and appearance-obsessed. He had his work cut out for him. An Akimichi got up as well, not even pausing in eating his potato chips. He made a mental note to _never_ take his team out for dinner. He may be the last surviving heir of his clan, but he still didn't think he could afford to treat an Akimichi.

Kakashi would make the kid _earn_ his chips from this day forward. If the kid was going to be big, then he'd make sure it was all packed on muscle hidden in thick clothes like his dad. This boy clearly needed some help. He consoled himself that they had to pass the bells test first, and nearly no one did that with him, but he knew his team at least had potential, if not much in the way of immediate skill – he doubted any of them had even begun studying their family's jutsu at this point.

So between the three of them, he realised, he had a team of genin who, quite apart from battle skills, needed to learn about the correct eating habits of shinobi – no diets, no binge eating, more variety than just ramen. He wasn't a dietician dammit!

"Meet on the roof in ten minutes," he told the kids, teleporting with his favourite every-day jutsu.

Kurenai gave a quick wave to Fukurou and Asuma before heading in, calling for 'Team 8'.

Sasuke stood, smiling at the familiar face who would be his sensei, and got a smile in return.

Kurenai's smile grew wider when she saw she also had Inuzuka Kiba – the younger brother of her best friend from her own Academy days, Inuzuka Hana – and Aburame Shino, the bug user. This was going to be an interesting group to teach, that was for sure. She was really glad Fukurou had taught her that cleaning spell as she ushered them down to the courtyard; with an Inuzuka on the team, things were guaranteed to get dirty at some point.

Fukurou gave the team a thumbs up as they passed her before heading into the room herself for 'Team 9'. Hyuuga, Haruno, and Nara stood up. One nervous, one confident, and one annoyed at having to stand up again. Oh yes, buying those broomsticks had been a stroke of genius, she chuckled to herself. Well, at least smart-ass-ery, which could come pretty damn close sometimes.

"Team 9, follow me," Fukurou instructed, leading them through five different hallways to a room with a balcony.

"Here's how we start," she said, resting against the rail of the balcony as her new genin took a chair each from the room and brought it out so that they could sit outside. "Introductions, a like, a dislike, and your dream, if you've got one, though at the grand age of eleven you're allowed to change your mind about that dream a few times yet," she chuckled. "I'll start. I'm Uchiha Fukurou, I like flying, I dislike bullies, and my dream is to live long enough to see grandchildren, mine or those of either of my little brothers."

"You fly, Fukurou-sensei?" asked the pale Hyuuga girl.

"Yep. I can explain that later if you like. Will you go next?" she asked.

"O-okay. I'm Hyuuga Hinata. I like ... um, will this go any further?" the girl asked, interrupting her introduction.

Fukurou shook her head. "Secret as the shoe-size of ants if you want it to be," she promised.

That got them all laughing at least. "I like Naruto," Hinata said, a weight seeming to lift from her as she said the words. "I dislike people who only see the bad in those around them, and ... sometimes I dream of flying," the girl added, excitement in her eyes at the prospect of learning how from her new sensei.

"I think we all do, Hinata-chan," Fukurou said with a smile. "I suggest being upfront with Naruto though, he's a bit of a lunk-head, and misses most of the subtle details." She brought her eyebrows into a mock-serious frown. "He just doesn't get girls," she confided.

"Please do not put him down, sensei," she said, almost hardly.

"Hinata-chan, if you like him, then it is very important to not be blind to his faults. I like him, but he does have faults, same as the rest of us. For Naruto, it's that he's hopelessly stupid about some things," Fukurou lamented.

"H-how do you know so much about Naruto-kun, Sensei?" Hinata asked, not sure she would be able to find fault in Naruto, but knowing that her sensei did have a point.

"I adopted him into the Uchiha family ah ... about a month ago now. Next!" Fukurou said, snapping out of the conversation with Hinata to continue the introductions, and turning to Sakura.

"I'm Haruno Sakura. I like Sasuke-kun. I dislike Naruto-the-idiot. My dream is to marry Sasuke-kun," the pink-haired girl said.

Fukurou slapped a hand to her face as Hinata stared at Sakura and the Nara boy muttered "Troublesome."

"Why do you like Sasuke-chan?" Fukurou asked, half peeling her hand off her face.

"He's cute," was the prompt reply.

"Sakura-chan, I hate to tell you this, by my youngest brother is as much of an idiot as Naruto, and is still at the point in his life where he thinks girls are icky, apart from family. I recommend you redirect your single-mindedness and drive into being the very best kunoichi you can be. You may find another reason to strive than just to get Sasuke-chan to notice you," Fukurou said. Finally pulling her hand away from her face completely, she added, "And why do you dislike Naruto?"

"He's an idiot who pulls dumb pranks, and Mama is always saying he's no good," Sakura answered, less confident after what her sensei had just told her, but still sure of her answer here.

"Oh yes, he somehow manages to pull pranks when a village full of qualified shinobi are wandering around, usually is able to escape capture of any kind for at least an hour after they've noticed the prank – these are signs that he is capable, Sakura-chan. I'm not denying he's an idiot, or that his pranks are dumb, but he also is very capable if, indeed _when_, he applies himself. As for your mother saying he's no good... well, a lot of grown-ups just don't like Naruto, and it's not for anything he did or has any control over. He's a good kid, neglected a lot, generally disliked by a lot of people for no good reason, but a good kid. Alright?"

"Alright sensei," Sakura conceded, shame-faced.

"Would you like to try again, or do you need some time to think?" Fukurou asked.

"I- I like chocolate, I dislike bullies, and my dream ... I think I'll need some more time on that one Sensei," the pink-haired girl said.

"That's alright Sakura, as long as you promise yourself to work on it," Fukurou said. Turning to the last of the genin, she smiled. "Last but certainly not least, the man of the group. Tell us about yourself, _without_ using the word 'troublesome'," she added with a grin.

The Nara boy scowled, but did as he was told. "Nara Shikamaru, I like watching clouds and playing shogi. I dislike ..." his scowl deepened, wanting to say 'troublesome things', but Fukurou-sensei had said he wasn't to use that word in his introduction. _That was troublesome_. "Bossy women," _yeah, that worked,_ he thought with a smirk, surprised to see a smirk appearing on his new sensei's face. It seemed she liked humour. _Huh, go figure_. "My dream is to become a jounin, marry a woman who won't nag much, she doesn't have to be too attractive, but not ugly, and have two children; a girl, and then a boy."

"You've got it figured out I see, Shikamaru-kun," Fukurou said, smiling at the boy. "You just have to get through the ranks and find that girl."

"What! Sensei, you're not going to comment on him saying he dislikes 'bossy women'?" Sakura yelled, outraged.

"Nope, I agree. I dislike bossy women as well. I went through that phase, and came out thanks to a good slap in the face. I'll give orders, I'm the leader of this team after all, but I'll try not to be _bossy_ about it. One question, Shikamaru-kun, when you paused there, was that because what you really dislike is 'troublesome things'?"

Nara smirked, and nodded.

Fukurou laughed. Ah, research! A wonderful thing. "Well, I hope reaching your dream won't be too troublesome for you then."

Hinata put up her hand.

"Yes Hinata-chan?"

"You said you would tell us about flying?" the girl asked.

"Ah yes. I did, didn't I?" Fukurou bit her lower lip and smiled. "You three passed the exam at the Academy, well done. You aren't genin yet though. You have to pass a test that I will give."

"But -!" Sakura started, shocked.

"No Sakura-chan, every team is doing this. You've proven to your teachers that you have the skills they taught you sufficiently mastered so that you could be a genin. This test is to see how you handle what they can't teach you in the Academy. Tomorrow morning at 10 on Training Ground 9. I will be waiting for you. I would suggest, as it was suggested to the Hokage when he was a genin, and to many other great jounin who took this test when they were genin like you, that you either do not eat breakfast at all, or only eat very lightly. It is highly likely that you will throw up at some point tomorrow," Fukurou told them.

"But Fukurou-sensei," Hinata asked, "What does that have to do with flying?"

"You pass, and my first practical lesson will be in touching the clouds Shikamaru-kun so enjoys watching from a grassy bank in the sun," Fukurou said, smiling. "A little extra incentive apart from having to go back to the Academy if you fail."

~oOo~

Fukurou laughed as she saw Naruto and Sasuke trudge through the gate of the Hatake-residence, clearly unhappy about being told they had to pass another test before they could become proper genin.

"Oh, cheer up boys," she told them. "You can pass this easy! Come on, I'll help you get ready for it," she said, leading them out to the training area.

She had them doing drills with sporadic sparring sessions, sometimes the boys against each other, sometimes she made them team up against her. Two hours in, Itachi approached the little group, a pissed expression on his face.

"What's the matter Otouto?"

"Hyuuga Hyashi-sama is here to see you Fukurou-nee-san," he said, his expression still like he had been forced to suck on a lemon.

"Thank you, will you help the boys train while I speak with him?"

Itachi nodded, glad to not have to deal with the man any further.

"Hyuuga-sama, what a pleasant surprise, will you please come in?" she said, seeing the austere, self-important looking man standing in the gate, and gesturing him to follow her to the office Kakashi had given her.

"Thank you, Uchiha-san."

Once they were seated, Fukurou poured them both tea and waited for Hyashi to speak.

"I understand you have been assigned as the Jounin sensei to my daughter Hinata," the man said at last, having taken a sip of his tea first.

"It is an honour that I have been recently granted, yes."

"I feel I must inform you that the girl is useless," he said bluntly, his cold white eyes fixed on Fukurou's face.

"I find that hard to believe, Hyuuga-sama. She passed her Academy examination with considerable ease, she is _your_ daughter, and I understand she also has a very solid work ethic. How could such a girl be useless?" Fukurou enquired, playing at being genuinely intrigued, rather than horrified at the man's attitude.

"She has no aptitude for taijutsu, her ninjutsu is weak, and her genjutsu is practically non-existent. How could she be useful?" the man returned. "I tell you, Uchiha-san, you will find my disgraceful daughter a burden to your team."

Fukurou smiled politely at the man and sipped her tea before speaking. She needed to be calm around this particular idiot. He had a lot of power after all.

"Hyuuga-sama, you are aware that I was called a child genius?" she asked.

Hyashi nodded. "And your brothers are both prodigies. Your late father was most fortunate in his children."

"No, Hyuuga-sama. My brothers are not like me. I have been like a sponge for knowledge all my life. They have no such special gift for learning or brilliance. They are considered great, Hyuuga-sama, because I took the time to teach them. We were, however, unfortunate in our father. He spent much time telling Itachi to be more like me, and greatly neglected his training until I was required to leave on a mission. Then he started telling Sasuke to be more like Itachi, and they both suffered. I taught Sasuke when I was on leave from my mission, and reminded Itachi to do likewise, but otherwise they would be like any other student in their class."

Hyashi stiffened at this. "You speak ill of your late father?" he asked, not liking the way the girl disrespected the dead, despite the generations-old enmity between their two clans.

"I speak truth of him," Fukurou answered. "My Tou-san was a fine ninja, a good leader, and an asset to his village when he pulled his kunai from his ass. This does not change that he was somewhat lacking as a father. I will teach your Hinata, and if you will open your eyes, Hyuuga-sama, to the possibility of her becoming better than she is now, I promise that you will see improvement within the month."

"I believe your pride is talking when you speak of your ability to teach," Hyashi said, not liking the slur to his treatment of his children.

"I have been coaching Naruto with Sasuke and Itachi this past month. They are training right now, if you care to see how much the 'dead last' of the Academy has improved. I do not make unfounded claims, Hyuuga-sama."

"I will not see the demon," the clan head sniffed in disdain.

"I am not asking you to, because _he_ is not a demon, Hyuuga-sama," Fukurou said, that same pleasant smile still on her face, as if he had at no point in this conversation offended her in any way, and as far as he was to know, he hadn't. "He is a boy, the son of the Fourth, soft-hearted and big-mouthed, and he wants nothing more than to become strong enough to protect the entire village. An admirable thing for a boy who has been so abused by the people within its walls."

Fukurou could tell. The expression on Hyashi's face and the way he hastily drank his tea said it so clearly. He was beginning to find her polite smile disconcerting. He was unable to read her intentions in her face because it was smiling, politely, even as he subtly insulted and carelessly offended her. Even her eyes, which many people claimed showed everything, showed only the same polite attentiveness.

"Would you like more tea, Hyuuga-sama?" she asked when he lowered the cup from his lips, now empty.

"No thank you Uchiha-san. I should return to my family estate," he said, setting down the cup and rising.

Fukurou escorted her guest to the gate in silence, the polite smile on her face, as though nothing had pleased her more than having this little chat with Hyuuga Hyashi.

"Be careful that you do not rely on my daughter's contributions to your team too heavily. She will be the weakness," he reminded her as the stood at the gate.

Fukurou smiled again. "Be careful that you do not push your daughter, Hyuuga-sama, or she will learn how you strive to cripple her, and then she might just return the favour."  
Hyashi frowned deeply at this and swept out of the gate. If he were not head of the Hyuuga clan, it might have been said that he left in a huff. Except that he was Hyuuga Hyashi, so he couldn't have done something so common. Fukurou closed the gate before allowing herself to laugh at his leaving, though she still burned with anger at the man. She returned to the training area, and immediately instructed all three of the boys to attack her as a team. She would not admit to her anger any more than she would admit to her pain.

She was a jounin, and shinobi were not supposed to have emotions.

She was human, so she had them anyway, but she could still bury them under a smile until she had the time to meditate. Pain, anger, loss. Revenge was like ice cream, sweetest when cold, interesting when deep-fried, nasty when melted, and almost always left you wanting – usually wanting more, but unable to have it. It was also unhealthy if indulged in too often.


	6. Chapter 6

Fukurou made absolutely sure that Sasuke and Naruto had eaten – not much, just enough to keep them going for a couple of hours – before she sent Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi off to meet their teams. Kakashi wasn't in the habit of letting his students pass this test, but she thought that with all the practice Naruto had put in yesterday, he _might_ succeed. Once they were gone, and Itachi had taken himself off to the missions office – he was hoping for an escort mission that would take at least a week, anything to get him out of Konoha for at least a short while – Fukurou busied herself making her own breakfast, and packing bento lunches for her team.

Checking the clock, she smiled to see she still had an hour before the time she had told her team, and put the lids on the lunches. She then fetched the bag she had used in Diagon Alley, and filled it with the four broomsticks she now owned, as well as dropping in one of her caged snitches. She then put in the bento's and, bells in hand, sped off to the training ground. If she could get in a warm up before Team 9 arrived, then so much the better.

Fukurou was very surprised to find Hinata already there, doing her own warm-ups.

It was a bit of serendipity for Fukurou though. She had a few things that she wanted to say to this diminutive girl, mostly about the way she let her father treat her.

"So keen, Hinata-chan," Fukurou observed when she came to stand just beyond the girl.

"Ah! Sensei, I didn't expect you here so early," Hinata yelped, breaking her stance and bowing.

"I could say the same for you, Hinata-chan. Please, resume your stance, I intend to warm up myself before the other two get here," Fukurou answered. "If you like, we can talk while we do this?"

"H-hai, Fukurou-sensei," Hinata stammered, surprised, and slightly confused. She was not used to such kind treatment from her superiors, apart from Iruka-sensei, and even then just sometimes.

Fukurou set down her bag and took up her own stance one metre to Hinata's left. "Training in silence is only so good," she started. "Those who face you will frequently try to throw you off with taunts. I like to meditate in silence, but for everything else I believe it is important to be able to continue while surrounded by noise. If you can block out the sounds of mothers yelling for their children, people haggling prices, and all the noise that is only meaningless to you, then you have half the mental battle won."

"Hai," Hinata answered, moving forward in her motion smoothly. "I shall endeavour to understand this, Fukurou-sensei."

"But as I say, this is only half the battle. The other half is to know which of the distracting sounds are your team mates, and being able to learn, quickly, what they need from you. You must coach yourself to be deaf to your opponent's jeers, hearing only those sounds, words, even the silences sometimes, that are important – your team mates, your special people, or the person who is paying for a shinobi guard. However, if your opponent is bragging to you about the greatness of their attack, you need to hear that as well, for with that information, you will be able to find their weakness, and the way to defeat them. Do you understand this?" Fukurou instructed, her voice calm and nurturing as she explained to the self-conscious girl.

"I think so, Fukurou-sensei," Hinata answered, taking her step forward against her invisible opponent. "But why tell me this without Sakura-san and Shikamaru-kun here?"

"Because your father came to see me yesterday."

Hinata stumbled in her attack.

"There, that is what I mean. Resume your stance, you must not let what I say affect your movements Hinata-chan. I am not angry, but this is why you need to know this more than they do. Continue your stances, let my words fall into you like a smooth stone into a pool of water. You must take the words in, but let them only make you more, not less," Fukurou said, breaking off her own stance to gently aid Hinata in hers.

"H-hai Fukurou-sensei," Hinata said, but she was trembling slightly now.

"I listened to him for quite some time, and I realised something about him. More confidence behind the strike Hinata-chan, it's alright. He reminded me of my own father. He's a great ninja, a respected leader, but a lousy dad," Fukurou stated, smiling.

Hinata dropped her stance in shock, staring with wide, pale eyes at her. "Fukurou-sensei!"

"Back into your stance, Hinata-chan," Fukurou said with a teasing smile. "Stones into a pool, remember?" she waited until Hinata was a few rounds into her stances again before she allowed herself to continue. "Anyway, he spent a lot of time telling me that you would be a burden to my team, which I disagree with, and I told him so. Hinata-chan, he believes you are not strong because his definition of strong is himself, and you are not him."

"Hanabi-chan is like Otou-sama," Hinata said. "He says my form is more graceful, but in everything else, Hanabi-chan is superior."

"Is your mother graceful?"

"Hai."

"Is she also strong?"

"No, she has been poorly recently."

"That is just recently. Before then, was she strong?"

"Hai."

"Then you are strong like your mother, not like your father. He is simply disappointed because he wanted his first child to be more like him," Fukurou assured. "I will tell you something though. Even though he did not say it outright, he is assuming that you will pass today's test to become a full genin, and he has taken this test himself, so he knows how hard it is. He would not caution me about you if he believed that you would fail today."

"Fukurou-sensei," Hinata whispered, surprised at the notion that her father took it for granted that she would pass a test.

"Fukurou-sensei!" another voice called.

"Sakura-chan! Ah, and I see you have dragged with you Shikamaru-kun, good. Then we can begin the test," Fukurou said, smiling.

"This is troublesome," Nara groused. "Will you let go of me?" he demanded of the pink-haired girl, trying to brush her hand off his sleeve.

Hinata and Fukurou laughed at them, and the jounin instructed the three to sit down.

"I have here two bells. To pass this test, you must capture at least one of them. Nice and simple, yeah? Except that I'm not allowed to play nice. You have until noon," Fukurou stated, hooking the bells onto her jounin vest before turning from the genin quickly, picking up her pack and disappearing into the trees of the training ground.

"What!" Sakura screamed after their disappeared sensei. "There's only two bells, one person has to fail!"

"Troublesome," Shikamaru stated. "Troublesome, loud, and incorrect."

"I don't see how. To pass, you have to get a bell. There are three of us and two bells, that means that someone will miss out!" Sakura countered.

Shikamaru shook his head, and outlined a plan to get the bells. After all, they were Academy fresh, and their sensei was clearly experienced. Hinata added comments now and then, as she had spent a bit of the morning talking to their sensei and could add information. Shikamaru altered his plan slightly based on what Hinata had said – having Sakura yelling loudly and charging straight in as a distraction would apparently not work so well.

~oOo~

Five minutes until noon, and Fukurou was laughing as Shikamaru held her by her shadow and the girls each plucked off a bell from where they hung on her vest. She had definitely given them a good run, and likely some very serious scares with the genjutsu traps she had laid out, but they had used – and kept – their heads very well despite all of that.

"Congratulations, all of you," she said, as Hinata and Sakura stood beside the sweating Nara. It was clearly hard for him to hold onto her, but he was making an admirable effort. "You all pass, I'm very pleased."

"I don't understand though Fukurou-sensei. You said we each had to capture at least one of the bells, but -" Sakura said, looking at the bell she held.

"And you all did. Shikamaru-kun caught both of the bells when he caught me, and then you and Hinata each plucked one right off of me while he held me captive. So, you pass. Now, I packed us some lunches, if you think you can stomach anything, and then, I believe I made a promise yesterday, didn't I?" Fukurou said finally breaking free of Shikamaru's jutsu as he slumped slightly in exhaustion.

"We're going to need to work on that skill of yours Shikamaru-kun," Fukurou said as she walked up to him. "It's a good trick, but you need more chakra reserves to hold it longer and stronger. Not that I'm going to let you get away with only knowing one good trick either," she added.

Her newly approved genin followed her back to the clearing where they had met earlier and she withdrew the bento from her bag, handing them around the kids before sitting down and taking out the last one for herself.

"Quiz time I think," she said and she took of the lid and picked up her chopsticks. "Who here knows how many different types of ninja there are?"

Sakura raised her left hand, while the other operated her chopsticks.

Fukurou nodded for her to speak.

"There's genin like us, chuunin, who are the next rank up, and jounin, who are the highest rank apart from the Hokage."

"Very good, but I didn't ask who knew the ranks, Sakura-chan," Fukurou teased gently, not criticising, but pointing out the mistake the girl had made. "I said 'types'. Try again."

Sakura thought a moment. "Do you mean like how some ninja help people get back to their own villages, and others go out and get things from far away?"

"Very good! Yes. Those two that you have named are escort nin and retrieval nin, and are two of the three most common ninja in this village. Shikamaru-kun, will you tell us the third?"

"Battle nin," he stated around a mouthful of rice.

Fukurou nodded. "That's right. Every shinobi of the leaf is expected to be proficient as a battle nin, that is why you are taught how to handle kunai and shuriken, how to run and dodge. Escort and retrieval nin frequently get caught up in fights, particularly if who or what they are protecting is wanted by other villages or powerful people who can hire shinobi from other villages. There are other types though. Hinata, want to try and name one?"

"ANBU," the girl said quietly, daintily picking up a slice of tomato between her chopsticks.

"Ah, yes, the ANBU," Fukurou said gravely. "Very important nin, the ANBU, very highly skilled. The ANBU are more of a rank than a type though. They are the hunters and defenders. If word reaches Konoha of a rogue nin in the area, ANBU are sent out to deal with the possible threat, or to recruit the rouge nin as a new ally. If a shinobi of Konoha leaves abruptly without the Hokage's permission, perhaps because they did something they should not have, thereby becoming a missing nin, then ANBU might be sent after that shinobi. They also guard Konoha against all possible invasions. Any other guesses? Perhaps if I said 'speciality' rather than 'type'."

"I'm a genjutsu specialist," Sakura said.

"Always useful to have, but even more useful if you can pack a wallop as well, while you're opponent is trapped in your genjutsu – because once they realise it, unless you have something like the Sharingan, genjutsu are fairly easy to break out of," Fukurou said, nodding in approval of the pink-haired girl. A reason why she had _not_ used her Sharingan to create the genjustu traps for the test today. She wanted them to learn, not just suffer.

Hinata and Shikamaru seemed to either have no idea, or no inclination to share their own speciality, and Fukurou sighed.

"My speciality," she stated, "is intelligence."

"You're smart?" Shikamaru asked, sceptical that just being clever could really be a speciality.

"Yes, but not my point. I have been trained as an intelligence nin. My sensei taught me how to get enemy nin talking and how to memorise things quickly in a dangerous situation and report them accurately to my leader. Information is important to the safety of our village, and my speciality is collecting that information. I am also a qualified battle nin, and I'm learning how to be a field medic-nin in my limited off-hours as well."

"Wow Sensei," Sakura gushed.

"That's very impressive," Shikamaru said, genuine awe on his face.

"How much will you teach us, Fukurou-sensei?" Hinata asked, her face glowing in anticipation.

Fukurou smiled. "As much as you are prepared to learn," she told them. "And when I run out of things to teach you, I will find you someone who knows more, so that you can keep learning. I know lots of stuff, yes, but I'm not the very best at a lot of it. There is, however, one set of skills I have that no one else in the village will be able to teach you."

"To fly?" Hinata begged.

"Kinda," Fukurou answered, withdrawing her wand and with a flick, packing up the now empty bento boxes.

"That was no jutsu," Shikamaru stated, all of the genin wide-eyed.

"This is something I learned on a long-term mission in a place called Britain, as is flying," Fukurou stated, reaching into the bag and drawing out the broomsticks, laying them on the grass in front of her students. She also slipped the snitch she had brought into her pocket.

"You've got to be kidding," Sakura said, staring at the wooden _thing_ lying before her.

"Nope," Fukurou answered cheerfully as she stood. "Up," she stated, causing her broom to jump into her palm. Mounting it side-saddle, she gently pushed off and zipped around her students a few times. "Of course, it will probably be easier for you if you just straddle the broom. This is for fun though. It doesn't even use your chakra – just a pleasant rush with which to end the day, and tomorrow we start on D-ranked missions."

Hinata was the first one on her feet and mimicking her sensei, holding her hand over the broomstick in front of her and stating "Up," firmly. She smiled delightedly when the handle jumped into her hand, and straddled it happily.

"Now, kick off _gently_, Hinata-chan, and as you shift your weight, the broomstick will move. Don't go to high or too fast, I don't want you falling," Fukurou instructed.

Hinata nodded and, as she left the ground behind, continued on as she would not have if it had been a regular chakra-infused jump.

Shikamaru was the next one to give it a go, and was soon smiling contently as he did lazy circles around the clearing beside Hinata.

"What's up Sakura-chan? Don't you want to try it too?" Fukurou asked, hovering near her last student, a concerned expression on her face. This was supposed to be a treat for them after all, if Sakura didn't like it, it fairly went bust.

"W-what if this starts up more name-calling? I already get teased for having a big forehead, I don't want to be called a witch as well," the pink-haired girl said quietly, very self-conscious.

Fukurou chuckled. "So your brain needed more room in your head than other peoples," she said, tapping the girl's skull gently with her knuckles. "Get the right hair-cut and you won't even notice it. As for people calling you a witch... any one does, you point them out to me. I'll put a hex on them for you."

"Sensei?" Sakura asked, surprised, her green eyes bugging out.

"I have been trained as a witch," Fukurou affirmed. "Now don't you worry your pretty head about a thing, just give it a go."

Sakura smiled weakly and, a bit hesitant, joined Fukurou in the air.

"We're going to climb now, _slowly_ Hinata-chan. Gently raise the front of your broomstick, and we'll keep up the circling pattern, so we'll rise like a bird on an updraught, alright?"

"Hai Fukurou-sensei," the genin chorused.

Hinata was clearly enjoying herself the most and was thrilled when they had been allowed to go faster. She didn't mind if it wasn't unassisted flight, it was more independent than any other kind she could think of. Shikamaru seemed to like being closer to the clouds as well, and while Sakura looked down a bit more often, she seemed to be smiling a lot too.

"Alright, how about a game, and then you can all go home for the day?" Fukurou said, pulling the caged snitch from her pocket. "Whoever catches this and brings it back to me is the winner," she told them, releasing the golden ball with wings.

It zipped off, and Hinata was after it like a shot. Shikamaru wasn't far behind, grinning himself as he gave chase.

"What if people see us?" Sakura asked, one eye on her team mates as they chased the ball, the other still on her sensei.

"Then they see you. If they have issue, they can come and complain to me, and you can tell them I said so. Sakura, this game is also going to help you at tracking something you can barely see, and improve your reflexes when you try to catch it and dodge your team mates. So It isn't orthodox. It's still teaching you the skills, and you're having fun at the same time. Tomorrow I'll give you a traditional lesson, alright? Now, get after that thing! I need it caught!" Fukurou answered with a laugh.

In the end, Hinata caught it, though Shikamaru was very close behind her, and even Sakura was laughing with joy as they all landed again, Fukurou standing on the ground to accept the golden ball from whoever won.

"Very good!" Fukurou praised happily, hugging Hinata and taking back the snitch. "You're a natural."

"Thank you, Fukurou-sensei," Hinata said with a blush.

"And among everything else, flying appears to be good for your confidence," Fukurou said with a grin on her face. "Tomorrow morning, meet me in front of the Hokage building at nine-thirty. We'll do a few missions in the morning, and then train in the afternoon," she thought but did not add 'as a reward'. Suffering through D-rank missions wasn't fun for anybody, but it had to be done.

"Fukurou-sensei, may I keep my broom?" Hinata asked, stroking the polished wood handle.

Fukurou shook her head sadly. "Best not, it might accidentally get used for sweeping up, and that would damage the bristles. Besides, if you were to have an accident when I'm not there, I'd feel really guilty about having taught you at all. Only under my supervision until you've made chuunin, alright?"

The genin laughed and the joke and agreed to the conditions, then held out their broomsticks for their sensei to take back as well.

Fukurou removed her wand first, and with a quick little spell carved the names of each of the genin into the broom handle they were holding, then slipped each broomstick into her bag.

"You're the first riders of these brooms, and they'll get a feel for you and you for them. I'm hanging onto them for now, but they _are_ yours," she told them. "Now go home and eat. Tomorrow will be a big day, make sure you have breakfast and pack a lunch."

"But Fukurou-sensei, your bento was so tasty," Shikamaru said, hoping to get another tomorrow, rather than have to deal with making his own, or asking his mother to.

Fukurou reached over and pulled a hair from his ponytail, smirking. "Not two days in a row, Shikamaru-kun," she told him, watching him rub his head at the residual pain from having a hair plucked.

The girls laughed, and they all bid their sensei good day, returning home in high spirits. Even Shikamaru was smiling as he left.

"Yes, yes, very good," she whispered after their retreating forms, rolling Shikamaru's hair between her fingers before dropping it into her bag as well before running home herself. It was time to see how Kakashi and Kurenai had fared with Naruto and Sasuke.


	7. Chapter 7

Hinata was still smiling when she walked through the gate of the Hyuuga compound and saw her cousin Neji practising his stances under her father's stern watch. Still too happy from flying to be brought down yet by the way neither of them much liked her, the girl walked straight up to her cousin, greeting her father as she walked past him, easily side-stepping the blows that Neji did not halt, and wrapped her arms around the slightly older boy in a hug.

"Hello Neji-nii-san!" she stated happily. "How has your day been?"

"I have had to suffer through Gai-sensei and Lee-san all day," Neji answered stiffly, his training forcibly stopped by her embrace. "What is the meaning of this?"

"My sensei is wonderful!" Hinata said, grinning. "She gave us all the best bento after we passed the bells test today, and she says that tomorrow we'll do missions in the morning and then train in the afternoon."

"Hinata, stop that unseemly display and either fetch tea or take you stances like Neji. _At once_," Hyashi growled at his daughter.

"Hai Otou-sama," Hinata said happily. He'd given her the option, she was going to take her stances. She didn't often get to practice under her father's watch, or with Neji-nii-san. They were both better than her technically, and their Byakugans were stronger than hers, so she very nearly jumped at the chance.

She didn't realise she was humming as she did her stances until Hyashi snapped at her to be silent, and she really didn't know what came over her when she answered him.

"Fukurou-sensei says that the enemy will not be silent, so I must learn to fight despite distracting noise," she stated, not having even faltered in her stances when her father snapped at her.

"That woman is a bad influence," Hyashi growled. "She smiles too much to be a proper shinobi."

"We had lessons on how to smile in the Academy," Hinata said absently, as though talking to herself, even as she continued her stances. "As a kunoichi, so that we can gain the trust of a target we might be getting information from, or required to kill quietly. Our Academy sensei said that it is hard to read emotions past a properly executed smile."

By this point, Hinata and Neji had synchronised their stances, and were doing them in perfect time together. Neji's were more powerful strikes, and Hinata's footwork was more graceful, but it was still a solid single movement from the two of them. Hyashi left them alone, disgusted.

"At least you do not go on as Lee-san and Gai-sensei," Neji said, not breaking the pattern. "Who is your sensei again?"  
"Uchiha Fukurou-sensei; she's very nice. I think you would like her, Neji-nii-san. I think she would like you too. You wouldn't believe what she taught us today after lunch," Hinata chuckled, though her stances did not slow or falter.

"Oh?" Neji asked, turning his head slightly to look at his younger cousin, also not slowing.

_This is nice_, Hinata decided. Normally, Neji-nii was so angry, but right now he didn't seem to mind her company, and they were even having a conversation!

"She taught us how to fly," Hinata said, grinning foolishly again, though still she did not break her stances. She was getting better at not letting anything distract her from what she was doing, and it had barely been a full day under Fukurou-sensei.

"Now you're making things up," Neji said flatly, a frown returned to his face and his concentration fully returned to his stances.

"Nu-uh. I'll ask Fukurou-sensei if you can come to training one day, and I'll _show_ you!" Hinata insisted. "She only lets us fly under her supervision," she added before Neji could ask why she didn't show him now and prove it. She'd rather not explain about broomsticks.

~oOo~

"Shikamaru, what is this?"

Shikamaru looked up in surprised at his father. "Oh, hi Tou-san, how was your day?"

"Fine, a bit troublesome, but B-ranked missions often are. Now, what are you doing?" Nara Shikaku asked again, hands on his hips as he tried to take in the array of scrolls spread over the table and the shogi board that was sitting on top of some of them.

"I'm testing myself," Shikamaru stated. "It would be troublesome if I could not keep up with Fukurou-sensei's training because I did nothing in my off-time."

"What does all of this have to do with your new -?" Shikaku cut himself off. "_Uchiha_ Fukurou?" he asked.

Shikamaru nodded.

"Ah," it made sense now. He remembered that girl. Enthusiastic for knowledge, and there was something about her that was kind of contagious, in a good way but still... _Troublesome_, he thought to himself with a smile. "So I understand why you are reading the family scrolls, but why the shogi board?"

"I like shogi," Shikamaru answered with a shrug. "If you like, I can reset the board and we can have a game," the kid suggested, smiling slightly at the idea.

"Troublesome kid," Shikaku said, shaking his head. "Sure, why not. You can tell me what you think of the family scrolls while we play."

"Thanks Tou-san."

~oOo~

Sakura was subdued when she got home that day, and her mother noticed.

"Honey, what's wrong? Is your jounin sensei mean?" the woman asked.

"No, Mama, actually she's really wonderful," Sakura reassured her mother with a quick smile. "It's just..."

"Just what dear? You know you can tell me anything."

"She's making me re-think a lot of stuff, and it's taking a while. She asked me a question yesterday, and I didn't really have an answer for it. I'd like to figure it out, I feel like it's important," Sakura explained.

"Well what was the question? Maybe I can help."

"What is my dream? I have a few things I'd like to do, but I don't really think I have one big goal to work to right now. I think I'd be better at applying myself if I had that."

"Oh dear, I can't really help with that sweetheart," she said, stroking her daughter's hair affectionately. "I can tell you what my dream was when I was your age, if you think that might help."

"Yes please, Mama."

"I wanted, more than anything, to be a medic-nin," she confided. "I wanted to be able to help my team by making sure they survived to reach Konoha when they went on a dangerous mission, and help other injured nin when they came to the hospital, hurting.

"That sounds really great, Mama!" Sakura said, getting caught up in the idea herself, but then a frown pulled her face down. "Why didn't you become a medic-nin?"

Mrs Haruno laughed softly. "I and my team never passed the bells test."

~oOo~

"You two better have passed," she told Sasuke and Naruto as they stumbled into the Hatake complex. "It would be a shame if this year's number-one rookie and the boy with the largest reserves of raw chakra _both_ had to go back to the Academy."

"No, we passed," Sasuke answered.

"Barely," Naruto added. "My team got by on a technicality, rather than actually getting the bells."

"Figured out over lunch that it was about teamwork huh?" Fukurou teased.

"Me and Kiba did our best to distract Kurenai-sensei while Shino got the bells for us," Sasuke said.

"Well good, I'm glad. Go have something to eat, and then meet me for training. Just because you have a regular jounin-sensei doesn't mean I'm going to let you slack off at home," the eldest Uchiha said, smiling as she shooed the boys into the kitchen.

When they returned to the yard, it was to find their sensei's talking to Fukurou.

"Our three teams are the only ones that passed this year," Kurenai said.

"And mine very nearly didn't," Kakashi added. "Chouji is smarter than Ino gives him credit for. He," Kakashi chuckled, "He says he gets it from hanging out with Shikamaru so much."

"That kid is definitely clever," Fukurou said. "Lazy, but brilliant. If I can just convince him to put forth a little effort, and not mind, he'd probably be one of the greatest shinobi in Konohagakure's history." At that moment, she spotted the boys and smiled. "Alright you lazy lot, _training_!"

Naruto sat down immediately to meditate, intent on finding his tenant and getting more control over his chakra. Sasuke moved off to work on his taijutsu, choosing a wooden pole wrapped in rope and alternating kicking it and punching it.

"Sasuke, either break the pole or break your leg. Don't be so half-assed. Your form is correct, work on your power. Naruto, change your position," Fukurou instructed the boys, enjoying letting herself be just a little bossy.

"To what, Fukurou-san?" Naruto asked, opening his blue eyes again to stare up her.

Fukurou's smile was not a comforting one.

"You are going to meditate," she said, bending over and planting her hands on the ground, lifting her feet into the air straight above her, not swaying an inch. "Like this. This will help to build your strength and balance at the same time as allowing you to focus on your chakra in a slightly difficult situation. The mornings, and the mornings _only_ are for silence and calm."

"Wow, you're actually evil under that pretty face, aren't you?" Kurenai said when Fukurou had made sure Naruto was able to stand on his hands and rejoined the other two jounin.

"If you're staying," Fukurou said, turning her not-so-nice smile upon her friend. "Would you train with me? There are some things I want to talk to you about as well."

Kurenai gave a shaky smile and started to sweat. "O-okay..." she said.

"Don't think you're getting out of it either, Hatake-san," Fukurou added, hooking a finger into the back of his jounin vest and towing him after her to the training grounds. "You have only mastered the very basics of your implanted Sharingan, you should really learn how to use it properly."

"Well when you put it like that I wouldn't dream of missing out," the man said happily. Actually, he didn't mind at all, and was at that moment very glad of both his mask and that Fukurou wasn't looking at his face, so that she didn't see his blush.

~oOo~

"So what did you want to talk about?" Kurenai asked, as she dodged a swipe Fukurou made at her head with a kunai.

"I'd like to invite all our teams here for dinner, day after tomorrow," Fukurou answered, recovering from the miss and jumping over the leg Kakashi had used to try and swipe her feet out from beneath her.

"Are you kidding? Akimichi's boy would clean us out," Kakashi stated, narrowly avoiding a shuriken Kurenai had thrown.

"I'll deal with it. I just want to invite them all. They're the only ones who passed, and I'd like the chance to get to know both my team, and the people on Naruto and Sasuke's teams."

"Sounds fair," Kurenai said, landing on Fukurou's blade before jumping over her, pointing a blade at her back. "If we tell the kids to each prepare a dish to bring and share, that should make it easier to feed everybody."

"That's true. Alright, I agree. I assume sensei's are invited as well," Kakashi asked, aiming his own kunai at Fukurou's abdomen.

"Of course," Fukurou laughed, substituting out from between the two blades.


	8. Chapter 8

"Iruka-sensei?" Sakura said when she walked into the missions office with her team, surprised to see her Academy teacher behind the desk.

"Ah, hello Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan, Shikamaru-kun. I suppose you are here for your first mission!" Iruka said, smiling at the genin team.

"Yes we are, Umino-san," Fukurou said, smiling brightly from her height about her team. "I wish to request four D-rank missions for my genin squad to complete this morning. We will be training in the afternoon," she added solemnly.

"F-_four_!" Iruka stuttered. "At once!"

"Certainly. My genin will learn how to deal with several situations at one time. It will keep their minds active," Fukurou answered with another smile.

Iruka wasn't the only one staring at her. Her genin were all more than just a tiny bit horrified as well.

"Besides, D-rank missions are boring, so doing several at the same time should at least make it more interesting," Fukurou said, stepping past her genin to look over the piles of D-rank missions. She grinned as she picked out four. "These will do us nicely. Come on you three."

"Fukurou-sensei, what did you mean 'D-rank missions are boring'?" Hinata asked as they walked down the stairs to the front door of the Hokage building once more.

"Exactly that. Here are our four missions this morning: find a cat and return it, walk a couple of dogs for the Inuzuka Veterinary Clinic, remove all garbage from the park, and babysit Hokage-sama's grandson, Konohamaru. That last one might actually be interesting considering the little brat's nature, but we'll see how we go."

"That _does_ sound boring," Sakura said, horrified at the very prospect.

"Is that the cat?" Hinata asked as they exited the building.

"Yep. But can you catch it? If it knows it's being chased, it will run, and very quickly," Fukurou said, smiling at the pale eyed girl.

Shikamaru quickly formed his seals and trapped the cat fairly easily, a smirk on his face.

"I like your style," Fukurou said. "Sakura, will you pick up the little runaway? We can return it on the way to get the dogs and the brat."

Konohamaru was happy enough to play with the Inuzuka dogs around the park, and Fukurou showed her genin how to make Kage Bunshin, a trick which made the process of cleaning up the park go quicker, then they each chased down two dogs while Fukurou caught Konohamaru – put her foot down on his scarf – and returned them to their correct residences, all now slightly exhausted from their exercise, and much easier for their handler's to deal with – Ebisu was particularly grateful, even if he was somewhat scandalised as well.

"Sensei, I feel filthy," Sakura said as they walked towards the training ground. "Is there somewhere I can wash before we have lunch?"

"_Scourgify_," Fukurou said by way of answer, swishing her wand at the three genin who walked with her.

"That seems like a really useful trick," Shikamaru said, as the dirt and grit vanished from his clothes and skin. His hair felt cleaner too.

"It is," agreed Fukurou. "Let's have our bento over by that tree, and then I'll have another look at your Kage Bunshin before I start you on water-walking."

"Water-walking?" Hinata asked, curious.

Fukurou nodded. "Harder than tree-walking, because the surface has a tendency to move under you, but this is about intense chakra-control, and while it could potentially take longer to get it right on water, the end result will be better control in a shorter amount of time, because you mastered the hard thing before the easy thing. Alright?" she asked, checking that she had been clear in her explanation.

Three heads nodded.

"And if you've got your Kage Bunshin mastered, which you will or I won't let you move on to water-walking, then you can set a couple of them to water-walking as well, and when they disperse you will gain their experience, just as you did earlier when you suddenly felt a lot dirtier because your bunshin had also picked up a lot of garbage," Fukurou added, teasing just a bit.

Sakura shuddered at the memory.

"Is everybody finished their bento?" Fukurou asked a short time later. Three empty boxes were shown. "Good. Now, one more thing before we get to training. I would like to invite you all to dinner tomorrow night, at the Hatake-estate where I and my brothers are living until the Uchiha estate is declared liveable again. Naruto-chan and Sasuke-chan are both inviting their teams as well."

"Ah! Sensei really?" Hinata and Sakura asked at the same time.

Fukurou laughed. "Yes, yes. Tomorrow night at six."

"Fukurou-sensei, may I bring my cousin Neji with me? He is on Maito Gai-sensei's team -"

"Say no more, Hinata-chan. Of course you may invited your cousin. Would either of you two like to invite somebody else as well?"

"I'd have said Chouji, but he's on Naruto's team, so he's already invited," Shikamaru answered, shrugging, though there was a smile on his face.

"Which reminds me, because so many are invited, it would be very much appreciated if everybody would bring something to help feed us. I don't know if I can make enough food to feed fourteen people all on my own," Fukurou said.

Sakura didn't seem to hear, but rather was floating on the idea of having "dinner with Sasuke-kun!"

"Snap out of it Sakura-chan, you have training to do!" Fukurou said, loudly, with her mouth right near Sakura's ear, causing the girl to jump and cover her ears.

Fukurou performed the seals, and produced three Kage Bunshin. She could have done a hundred more, very easily, but this was about teaching the technique, not about impressing the kids with sheer volume.

"Your chakra is divided between yourself and the number of Kage Bunshin that you create," the bunshin on the left instructed.

"If you spread your chakra thin, you can create more, but we will not last as long," continued the centre bunshin.

"By concentration of chakra, fewer, stronger bunshin are created," finished the bunshin on the right.

"Now, show me how you make three Kage Bunshin," Fukurou said, dispelling her own bunshin and activating the first stage of her sharingan so that she could better observe.

When she had twelve satisfactory genin standing before her, three of whom were originals, she continued her instruction.

"Before I let you anywhere near the water, which is very cold by the way, show me how your new Kage Bunshin perform a Henge. One each will become me, one each will become an animal of some kind – don't pull faces Shikamaru-kun, being able to pass yourself off as an animal is very useful in some situations – and one each will turn into a weapon, of your choice."

Several bursts of chakra later, and there were now four Fukurous, causing the original among them to smile. Shikamaru had changed his other two Kage Bunshin into a deer and a large throwing star. Hinata had provided a puppy and a regulation kunai, which impressed Fukurou for making the bunshin reduce in size so much. Sakura's bunshin now looked like a large cat and a hefty looking kunai. Not quite as small as Hinata's, but still impressive for their reduction. Of course, she hadn't really been testing their henge skills, it was really just a matter of properly mastering their Kage Bunshin.

"You may release them, and approach the water," Fukurou said with a smile. "Well done, all of you."

Three beaming faces followed Uchiha Fukurou as she headed for the small lake on the training ground. Their pleased expressions faded rapidly into shock as she kept walking, not minding that the ground had stopped and she was on water, and not even a noticeable ripple followed her.

"Fukurou-sensei, shouldn't there be even a little water displaced if you're walking on it?" Sakura asked, lightly touching the water with a finger and making ripples, as if to prove her point.

"As you get better control over your chakra, you can do this without causing ripples," Fukurou answered, turning to her students. "What you're essentially doing is using your chakra to both grip the surface, so that you don't slip, and to float above it, so that you don't fall in. Be glad I'm starting you out on your feet, which have a nice, large surface to spread your chakra over. I could be really mean and have you doing this to begin with," she said, flipping onto her hands and looking back up at her genin.

"Wow," escaped three mouths simultaneously.

"Now, you spread your chakra over your feet and use it as a cushion between yourselves and the water. It takes extreme control, however, or you end up disrupting the water and you will get wet – either you fall in, or you make the water spray up," Fukurou explained, flipping back onto her feet once more. "With enough practice, you will do this automatically, and you will be able to sit happily on a lake and watch the clouds roll by, without even a thought to your chakra or a tell-tale ripple on the water."

"What about baths and spas?" Sakura asked, hoping that it wouldn't become quite _that_ automatic.

"Wonderful things those," Fukurou said with a sigh, remembering the last time she'd enjoyed the luxury of a spa. "No need to worry about it," she added. "When you're getting into a spa or the bath, your mind-set is different. Sure you can practice on the bath water, or at a spa, but you can still enjoy your 'me time' up to your neck in hot-water-heaven. Now, slowly and with attention towards getting it right. No need to rush in."

Hinata, as she had yesterday, was the first to try this new trick presented to them by their sensei. She activated her byakugan and stared at Fukurou for a moment, then touched her sandalled foot to the water's surface. She made a few ripples, but she didn't sink enough to get her exposed toes wet. She put her weight on the floating limb and, though a few more ripples spread out, she didn't sink any further. Her second foot came down to join the first, and slowly, carefully, she walked across the water to join Fukurou-sensei in the centre of the lake.

Shikamaru and Sakura started at the same time. Unfortunately, Shikamaru needed a bit more control over his chakra, and caused an upward splash, getting Sakura wet as well as himself, distracting her, causing the pinkette to sink, dropping her toes into the cold water of the lake's edge.

It took a while, but with her mantra of doing it slowly and getting it right, eventually Fukurou had them running over the lake, chasing her and trying to land a hit when they got close enough. It didn't happen much, but sometimes she let them get almost within striking distance, tugged at their hair with her longer reach, then dashed off again, laughing as their chakra control faltered slightly and they got wet.

Dripping wet all of them, Fukurou declared training over while they still had some light and let the kids onto their broomsticks, releasing the snitch for them to compete at catching again. Shikamaru was about to close his hand around the golden ball when it darted away from him, did a loop around a surprised Sakura and Hinata snatched it once again as it tried to streak off over the lake.

"Is that ball rigged so that only Hinata-san can catch it?" Shikamaru asked suspiciously as he brought his broomstick in to land.

"No," Fukurou answered. "I bought it from the same shop as the broomsticks, and I haven't a clue how it works. I can't have rigged it," she explained. "You came very close though, so well done there. You were a caught off guard though Sakura, weren't you?"  
The girl nodded, blushing.

"The next time the snitch comes at you, try to grab it. If it were a kunai, you'd suddenly have your opponent's weapon, which is generally a good thing, as it means you won't run out of your own as quickly. Do you all enjoy flying?" she asked suddenly.

"Very much Fukurou-sensei!" Hinata said, her pale eyes still bright.

"Hai, Fukurou-sensei," Shikamaru said. "It's nice to be able to get closer to the clouds."

Sakura nodded. "It really is fun," she added, smiling brightly.

"I'm glad. Now, tomorrow we will meet outside the Hokage Tower at half past nine again, and do missions in the morning before we continue today's training in the afternoon. Once I am satisfied with that, I will have new challenges for you, rather than letting you just chase after a little golden ball with wings again. Then I will see you all at dinner, and you may fly around a bit on the Hatake estate."

"Hai Sensei!" the genin chorused.

"Good, now go home, eat good food, and tell whoever is your special person at home that you love them. That's an order," she said, a gentle smile on her face. "You never know when you might not get to ever say it again after all," she added to herself as they each hurried home, laughing at their sensei's sense of humour.

~oOo~

"Otou-sama," Hinata called politely, as she stood in the doorway of his office.

"What do you want Hinata?"

"I have been invited by Fukurou-sensei to join her and two other new genin teams for dinner tomorrow night. I may also bring Neji-san if he wishes to go, and if we have your permission," Hinata said, bowing politely to her father as he fixed his cold eyes upon her.

"I do not approve of your sensei," Hyashi said. "However removing you from her instruction is not something I am permitted to do. Team allocation is decided by the Hokage on advice from the teachers at the Academy."

"Please, Otou-sama?"

"I do not like it," Hyashi stated again, "but you have my permission."

"Ah! Thank you Otou-sama!" Hinata said, bowing deeply. Straightening, she also recalled the 'order' Fukurou-sensei had given the team before sending them home. "Do you have a task for me, or may I take my leave?"

"You may go."

Hinata bowed again and left to find Neji and Hanabi; she had things to tell them.

~oOo~

"Mama?"

"Yes, Sakura-chan?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

~oOo~

"What did you do today Shikamaru?" Nara Shikaku asked his son when he returned home to find the boy sitting at the table once more, this time only one scroll out with the shogi board.

"Four troublesome D-ranked missions, learned a new jutsu and worked on chakra control. Fukurou-sensei also said that when we got home we were to tell our precious person there that we love them," Shikamaru answered, smiling up at his father as he said that last bit. "Said it was an order."

"You have a good and wise sensei," Shikaku said, sitting down with his boy. "A bit strange, but still she is very sensible as well. It is important to tell those important to us that we care about them, we might not see them again tomorrow."

Shikamaru nodded. "Love you Tou-san," he said quietly.

"I love you too Shikamaru. Shogi?"

The son nodded. "You want to _try_ tonight?" he asked his father, making him laugh.

"You, my dear son, are a gifted strategist. If I come close these days, I think I am doing quite well."

~oOo~

Fukurou smiled when she came home to see Sasuke really laying some hurt into the pole he was already attacking, and Naruto standing on his hands, eyes closed and sweat dripping off his face as he sometimes lowered and raised himself while he meditated.

"They've been at that for hours now," Itachi informed his older sister when she joined him on the porch to watch them. "I expected you back sooner."

"Sorry," she answered, yawning slightly. "I didn't want to send my genin home until they had at least mostly mastered today's lesson. How was your day Otouto?"

Itachi shrugged. "I didn't get any escort missions, obviously, but I'm promised one tomorrow once the client has been screened. Some bridge-builder from Wave. I saw him. He's hiding how high-ranking the mission is I think, but he can't really afford to pay what it's worth. If I don't take it at the rate he needs it to be, it will be given to one of the new genin teams, and who knows what trouble they could get into."

Fukurou nodded. "You come back alive, alright? Collect a medi-bag from the hospital before you go. I want you back in one piece. If Sasuke-chan loses any more of his family he'll be in some real trouble. It's bad enough you're going to miss dinner with all the teams!"

"I'm sorry Fukurou-nee-san," Itachi said, hanging his head.

"Don't be," she said with a sigh. "The past is come and gone, and I have forgiven you, and I believe that Sasuke-chan has too. You die out there on the other hand, and I will never speak to you again. Sasuke-chan may well decide to hunt you down and kill you if you go and die on us. As for the dinner, you'll just have to make it up by bringing back presents."

Itachi chuckled. "It's nice to know that you still love me," he said.

"Of course I still love you, you're my cute little brother!"

"I thought Sasuke-chan filled that now."

"Well, he does, but that doesn't mean you stopped!" Fukurou declared, tackling her brother and tickling his ribs mercilessly.

"Looks like fun," Kakashi said from above them.

"Hello Hatake-kun," Fukurou said, smiling up at him, her face flushed still from the fun of tickling her little brother. She didn't notice she had changed suffix.

Kakashi did, and blushed lightly beneath his mask.

"Hello Kakashi-senpai," Itachi said. "Would you be obliging enough to pull my sister off me?"

Kakashi laughed and offered them both a hand up.

"Dinner is ready," he said.

"I'll get those two cleaned up and we'll join you in a second," Itachi said, leaving quickly to get Naruto and Sasuke.

"Thank you," Kakashi answered the younger man, and gestured for Fukurou to enter the building before him.

"What did you make them do today?" Fukurou asked as she washed her hands in the kitchen sink before sitting down with Kakashi and waiting for the other three.

"Picking up garbage in the main street until it was spotless, and then taijutsu practice. Ino-chan was furious and desperate for a bath, while Chouji-san was exhausted when I sent them home, sweating horribly. They are both coming to dinner tomorrow."

"Hatake-kun, you have a thousand jutsu stored up there," Fukurou said, pointing to his forehead. "I hope you're going to teach at least a couple of them to your genin at some point."

"They all need to improve their self-control and chakra-control first, and that's what I'm working on with them, though your regime for Naruto is working wonders in him. He's ahead of the other two by a fair bit, but he still needs a bit more work."

"You could start them tree-walking tomorrow, or have them do the hand-stand meditation I've got Naruto doing. That ought to help bring them up faster, and they'll be enthusiastic about learning something interesting if you get them tree walking," Fukurou suggested.

"Hm," Kakashi said, rubbing his mask-covered chin. "I like those suggestions, Fukurou-san, thank you. Of course, my genin might not thank you," Kakashi said, smiling beneath his mask and his lone visible eye curved up happily.

Fukurou laughed, blushing slightly at Kakashi using her first name.

"Here we are," Itachi said, walking into the dining room.

"Yay! Ramen!" Naruto yelled as he dived for his seat.

Everybody laughed at him, but tucked in just as happily with an "Itadakimas!"


	9. Chapter 9

"Ibiki-sensei!" Fukurou yelped happily when her old sensei approached the training ground where she was with her team, running at him and, arms outstretched, jumping at him.

"Aah, hello Fuu-chan," he answered with a smile, bracing himself for the tackle she gave him. "I'm afraid you won't be so happy to see me when I tell you all of my news," he said as he put her back down.

"What is it Ibiki-sensei?"

"I do have some good news, so I'll give you that first. The ANBU have cleared the Uchiha complex for re-habitation. You can move back in tomorrow. Itachi is going to be recognised as a hero -"

"This is where you tell me the bad news," Fukurou said flatly. "Itachi being recognised as a hero after killing his clan?" She did love him, and she had forgiven him, but there was still a part of her that was not completely over it, however well hidden it was from herself and those around her.

"Your father was planning a coup with the elders of you clan. I very much doubt Madara, Danzo or your brother knew it, but Itachi has saved Konoha from civil war," Ibiki said.

"He's still an idiot for letting himself be manipulated like that," Fukurou pouted. "And I hate to admit it but I believe my father was that much of a bastard," rubbing a hand over her face, she checked that her genin were still chasing each other and their Kage Bunshin around the lake before turning back to her old sensei. "I assume someone is handling spreading the word?"

Ibiki nodded.

Fukurou nodded, tilted her head back, closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Would you like to join us for dinner at the Hatake estate tonight, Ibiki-sensei? I would like it if Sasuke-chan heard it from you," Fukurou asked, not moving.

"I would be honoured to join you for dinner Fuu-chan."

"Six o'clock then, sensei," Fukurou said looking at him now, trying on a smile again and giving her old teacher a more controlled hug than her initial tackle.

"Hai, hai. Six o'clock," he agreed, patting her on the head before having her release him and leaving her to her genin.

"It will be good to be able to get to the family scrolls again," she thought to herself as she returned to the edge of the lake. "And maybe I'll give the kids homework – find some family jutsu to practice. I know Sakura's mother never made it, but she probably still has some scrolls, and if the Hyuuga and the Nara don't have a dozen or more _each_ I'll eat my witch hat."

"Alright you three!" she called out. "I hope your arms aren't too tired from helping in the laundry earlier! You are now going to start running around on your hands!" she yelled out at them, smiling broadly. "This will help your chakra control, your balance, _and_ your upper-body strength! Also, if you spot a fish below you, I want you to try and catch it without falling in yourself!"

"Why are we catching a fish, sensei?" Sakura asked, even as she tried to balance on her hands over the water. She was finding it both slightly disconcerting and difficult.

"When you're up to taking missions beyond Konoha's gates, you're going to need to be able to feed yourselves. If you can't catch a fish when you see one, you will go hungry," Fukurou explained.

She laughed as they got themselves wet chasing fish around for a while before she called for them to stop. Shikamaru flipped onto his feet and walked over, Hinata, giggling, made her way over on her hands, even though her arms burned from the work they had done today, and Sakura -

She plunged her hand quickly into the water and pulled up a fish, a huge smile on her face as she righted herself and, fish still in hand and wriggling about, walked over the water to Fukurou and her team mates.

"Congratulations Sakura-chan!" Fukurou praised. "That's a good sized fish! If you would like to give it a good whack just behind the head, then we will take it back with us and it can be part of tonight's dinner," Fukurou suggested.

Sakura nodded and broke the creature's neck, clearly pleased with herself for being able to provide food for her team, even if it wasn't immediately necessary right now.

"What will we do now Fukurou-sensei?" Hinata asked. "You said we weren't going to be chasing the golden ball today."

Fukurou nodded. "That's right. Today I brought a _go_ board and a shogi board. Strategy games. Hinata and Sakura, you will use the shogi board. Shikamaru, I challenge you to a game of _go_. We will only be playing for about fifteen minutes though."

The genin fell to the games happily. Sakura didn't have much experience with shogi, but Hinata was a kind instructor, and they were fairly evenly matched once she got the hang of it. Shikamaru had a slightly wicked smile on his face as he set his stones over the board however, one that was matched on Fukurou's face.

"Time's up," she declared after what felt to the genin like only a short while later. "Memorise the positions of your pieces, and those of your opponent. You may set up the game again when we reach the Hatake estate, and continue the game there until dinner is ready if you like," she added, flashing her sharingan at both boards. "I will look over your boards and see if you remember correctly. Now, I'll take the fish, and you all have enough time to get home and clean up a bit before you come to the Hatake estate."

"Hai Fukurou-sensei!" the genin chorused, dashing off to their respective homes.

~oOo~

Sasuke was sweating as he attacked the pole, and he was bleeding from the coarse ropes rubbing against his skin where he had repeatedly made contact. Naruto had progressed to doing regular push-ups as he meditated, and sweat was dripping from him as well.

"Naruto-chan, go wash up. Sasuke-chan, you too, and bandage your injuries. Then I want you two to practice stances at half-speed until your team mates get here," Fukurou said. "Doing the motions slowly is a different kind of discipline. You will channel your chakra through yourselves as you practice. Am I clear?"

"Hai Fuu-nee-san," Sasuke answered, dropping from his last kick.

"Hai Fukurou-san," Naruto chimed as well, standing up straight.

"Where'd you get the fish?" Kakashi asked from the porch once the boys had left to wash themselves.

"Sakura-chan caught it in the lake while we were training," Fukurou answered, pride in her students radiating from the beaming smile on her face.

Kakashi chuckled and shook his head. "Let me have that while you take a bath, I've had mine already."

"Ah, thank you Hatake-kun," Fukurou said.

"Kakashi," he said.

"Then thank you _Kakashi_-kun."

~oOo~

Fukurou emerged from her bath to the sound of genin making a fuss about something. Quickly getting dressed, she was shocked to see Sakura pulling the hair of a blond girl while Naruto butted heads with a boy who had a dog at his heal. The rest of the genin seemed to be just watching the two fights, clearly entertained.

"Naruto! Sakura!" she snapped. "What is the meaning of this?"

Her genin and the boy she had adopted into the Uchiha family snapped out of their fights at once.

"Those two," said the boy who _had_ to be Akimichi Chouji, pointing to Sakura and the other girl who had been fighting, "have been best friends and worst enemies for ages. Fighting is what they do."

"And Naruto said Akamaru smelled," the boy with the dog said, a bit of a growl to his voice. He had to be the Inuzuka. "Sorry for the disturbance, Uchiha-sama."

"Uchiha-sama?" asked the girl Fukurou didn't know. By process of elimination she had to be Yamanaka Ino.

"Yes. I am Uchiha Fukurou, head of what is left of the Uchiha clan – myself, my little brothers Itachi-chan and Sasuke-chan, and the recently adopted Naruto-chan," she explained. "So are you going to introduce yourselves or will I have to guess?"

"Guess Fukurou-sensei!" Hinata chirped happily.

"Let me see..." she said, eyes wandering the genin. "Young man, you said your dog's name was Akamaru?"  
"Hai."

"Would you be Inuzuka Kiba-san?"

"Hai!" the boy gave a fanged grin.

"And I know Hinata-chan and Sakura-chan, so that must mean you are Yamanaka Ino-chan?"

"Hai, Uchiha-sama," she said with a bow.

"Akimichi Chouji-san? You have hair like your father."

"Hai, Uchiha-sama, thank you," the large boy said, smiling happily that he was recognised for something other than his weight.

Fukurou looked at the last two boys she hadn't met.

"Hyuuga Neji-san, I am very pleased to meet you. Hinata-chan speaks fondly of you when I leave her with the breath to talk," Fukurou said with a small bow to the eldest genin.

"It is an honour to meet you as well, Uchiha-sama," the white-eyed boy said, though slightly surprised that Hinata apparently talked about him, and 'fondly' at that.

"Which means that the shadow hiding by the tree must be Aburame Shino-san."

The boy stepped out from behind the tree and bowed politely.

"Shino doesn't talk much," Kiba said.

"He's allowed," Fukurou said, smiling at the happy dog-boy before returning her gaze to Shino. "I would like very much to meet you Shino-kun," she said holding out her hand, palm up.

He nodded slightly.

Ino jumped in surprise and disgust when a bug flew past her, but Fukurou didn't mind a bit when it landed on her open hand. She stared at it a minute before smiling and raising a finger to tickle the little guy, which caused him to take off.

"Team 9, have you set up your game boards?"

"Hai Fukurou-sensei."

"Then I shall check them and we will go in for our meal as soon as all the sensei are here."

"Fuu-nee-san," Sasuke said as she walked past him. "Kurenai-sensei arrived with Shino-san. Who else are we waiting for?"

"Ibiki-sensei is coming also. He has some things to tell us."

Sasuke nodded.

~oOo~

"Well done, all three of you. However, Sakura-chan's bishop had not been promoted, Hinata-chan's was, easy mistake, and Shikamaru-kun? Don't think I didn't notice you adding one of my pieces there for you to make an easy capture. Put it back," she scolded with a smile.

The mistakes were corrected, and Fukurou nodded. "Much better."

"Fukurou-sensei, may we fly a bit?" Hinata asked eagerly.

"After we have had dinner," Fukurou answered, aware of a familiar chakra signature arriving at the gate. "Everybody is here now, so let's go and eat."

~oOo~

The genin were all awed when they entered the dining room to find so much food spread out before them. They didn't even notice Morino Ibiki sitting with Kakashi and Kurenai, discussing a health report he had received on Asuma – at whose name Kurenai's face developed a small, content smile without apparent intentional thought. The man needed to cut down on smoking, it seemed.

Small folded cards with names were spread around the table, indicating where the genin were to seat themselves, and they all started searching for their own names among the others.

When everybody was seated, Kakashi asked if she would like to serve.

"Since this little gathering was your idea Fukurou-san," he added.

Fukurou smiled, withdrew her wand, and with a flick, various foods – the non-dripping kind – floated onto people's plates. Bowls drifted near the pots of soup and ladles carefully portioned it out. When everything was still again, only Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi and Kurenai gave their "Itadakimas!" and dug in. Everybody else, including Ibiki and her own genin, were staring at Fukurou.

"You will let your food get cold," she chided them with a smile as she put the wand away. "Itadakimas," she said as she picked up her chopsticks and aimed them at a dumpling.

"Sensei, I know you're really cool, but where did you learn _that_?" Sakura asked, her green eyes wide.

"The same place I learned about cleaning things and flying Sakura-chan," Fukurou answered with a gentle laugh.

"You can fly?" demanded the four new genin she had only met that day.

"Hinata wasn't making it up?" Neji added, his own pearly eyes as wide as everybody else's.

"What other secrets are you hiding, Fuu-chan?" Ibiki asked, a slightly nervous chuckle in his voice as he finally picked up his chopsticks. "Itadakimas."

"Lots, Ibiki-sensei," Fukurou answered. "I'll be happy to show you more after we have eaten, alright?"

Heads nodded and they fell to eating.

"Chouji-kun, slow down!" Fukurou said with a laugh. "If you eat that fast, how will you taste the food you're eating?"

Chouji seemed surprised by the idea. "H-hai, Uchiha-sama," he said, and obediently slowed the pace at which he ate his food. "Ah! It's even better!"

Fukurou smiled and gave a wink to Kakashi over the kid's head.

"There, you see? And please, call me Fukurou-sensei," she said to the boy with a smile. "How are you finding your training?"

"Kakashi-sensei makes me do push-ups and sit-ups and run a lot," Chouji answered, clearly not very happy about this. "He doesn't make Ino-san do nearly as much, and Naruto is always running off eager to do more."

"He must expect you to become really strong then, if he's pushing you like that. Ino-san is probably just not able to keep up with you yet, so Kakashi-sensei is building her strength up more slowly, and having her work on her chakra control when she takes her breaks," Fukurou comforted.

"He makes me train my chakra when I'm taking a break from taijutsu exercise as well," Chouji said, grasping the possibility of the truth in this. He ate a while, slowly, enjoying his food as he cleaned off his plate.

"Fukurou-sensei? You really fly?" Neji asked, distracting her from watching the boy eat.

"I really do Neji-san, and I have taught Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan and Shikamaru-kun as well," Fukurou answered with a smile.

"EH! You taught them before you taught us Fukurou-san!" Naruto demanded loudly.

"If you like Naruto, I will give you your first lesson after dinner," Fukurou promised, an amused chuckle slipping past her lips.

"May I get a lesson as well?" Kurenai asked.

"Hai, me also," Kakashi added.

Fukurou laughed happily. "Yes, yes, of course. Does anybody else wish to learn to fly?" she asked.

"HAI!" was the chorus around the table.

"But eat first," Fukurou instructed, mentally counting how many broomsticks she was suddenly going to need.

A short while later, Chouji drew her attention again."Fukurou-sensei? I feel full," the admission clearly surprised the Akimichi boy. He was used to eating a lot more before he felt full.

Fukurou laughed kindly. "Another side-effect of eating slowly," she told the boy as she ruffled his hair fondly. "Your tummy has the time to take in the food, and you feel full sooner. You enjoy your food more, and you don't need to eat as much of it to feel full. Give it a little time to settle, and I expect you will find you have some room by the time dessert is brought out."

"Ah! Thank you Fukurou-sensei!" Chouji said, smiling broadly.

"Now, if you will all excuse me a moment, I will just prepare a few things for the flying lesson, and then bring out dessert," Fukurou said, rising from her place at the table.


	10. Chapter 10

It was probably the fastest trip that Fukurou had ever made to Diagon Alley. After she had portkey'd in, she made a quick stop at Gringotts and then raced to the Quidditch supplies shop to buy six broomsticks – there was also some very fast-paced haggling, one broomstick free, three heavily reduced – and she was portkeying herself home again. Laying out the broomsticks in the yard, she then muttered the magic word that would clean her, "_Scourgify_," and fetched the dessert from the kitchen.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting," she said, smiling brightly at everybody.

"I was just explaining to everybody about the incident," Ibiki answered.

"No, you didn't keep us waiting," Kakashi assured. "Sasuke-kun might need you right now, though," he said quietly, pointing to the boy who was clearly not letting himself cry.

"I hope you were nice about it Ibiki-sensei. I know your reputation as a sadist better than anyone in the whole village!" she scolded, going to her littlest brother. "Sasuke-chan," Fukurou said softly, wrapping her arms around him. "It's alright. You're allowed to cry. Tou-san wanted to do something bad. What Itachi-nii did stopped it from happening, even if it didn't make it better. You're allowed to cry."

"Shinobi do not have emotions," Sasuke objected.

"Bollocks," she answered, letting eight years of life in Britain seep in. "Of course we do. We're still human. Crying is important. Crying, laughing, and seeking help when we need it. No shinobi is a machine, however much we may strive to be. I'll bet Itachi-nii was really hurting when he did what he did, and you know he still struggles with it, and the nightmares he has from his own actions. This is hurting you, and right now you are in a safe place where nothing is going to get at you if you let your guard down. Let yourself cry, Sasuke-chan," Fukurou said, rocking him gently as she stroked his back and held him close. Never mind that she meditated for hours so that she wasn't like this. Sasuke was still only a child, and if she could break the mould that she had been forced into, then so much the better.

A choked sob issued from her little brother, and she felt dampness spread over her shirt. She let him continue, hiding his face from his friends and team mates, until he started to sniffle and straighten.

"Sorry about your shirt Fuu-nee-san," he said quietly, wiping at his eyes and nose.

"It's just a shirt. Do you feel better now?" she asked, stroking his hair gently.

He nodded.

"If everybody is done staring now," Fukurou said, smiling at her little brother and standing up. "I'll serve dessert."

They sat in silence for a while before Neji spoke up.

"Is it really okay for shinobi to cry?" he asked.

"Yes," Fukurou answered.

"Depending on the situation," Kakashi added. "Crying when you're surrounded by the enemy is probably a bad idea."

"Definitely a bad idea," Ibiki said, "unless you're acting," he added with a chuckle.

That, at last, eased the atmosphere once again and allowed everybody to enjoy their dessert. Rather than using magic to serve this into people's bowls, however, Fukurou used a little levitation charm to take the desserts around the genin and jounin to let them take as much as they wanted of the different treats. There was vanilla ice cream with lollies mixed through it, summer berry pudding, and dango sticks floating around for people to help themselves.

Fukurou was satisfied to watch everybody else interact, rather than serving herself anything.

She smiled to see that Chouji only took one scoop of each the ice cream and the pudding and one dango stick, which surprised Shikamaru who was sitting next to him, though he seemed pleased as well. He knew his friend was more than his girth, but he was glad to see that the other boy would not be expanding it further, for the sake of his health.

"Does Akamaru want dessert as well, Kiba-kun?" Fukurou heard Hinata asking the Inuzuka boy. "I think he enjoyed the pork buns, but does he have room for more?"

"Hai, thank you Hinata-hime," the tall boy said with a slightly fanged smile. "If you could dish him a little of the berry pudding, while I stop him from launching into the whole thing, I would appreciate it."

Shino held out a napkin to Sakura, causing her to blink in surprise. When he tapped it gently to her chin, she got the idea though, and blushing took the linen from him, wiping away the little bits of berry pudding from her face.

"Did I get it all?" she asked shyly, blushing.

Shino nodded and smiled gently behind his high collar.

Ino was scolding Naruto for making a mess of his food, that it looked disgusting all mashed up together. He was ignoring her, occasionally saying something to Sasuke between his mouthfuls of sweets.

Kakashi was teasing Kurenai about her crush on Asuma, which Ibiki was clearly finding fascinating.

Neji wasn't eating.

"Is something bothering you Neji-san?" she asked quietly.

"You would teach even me how to fly?" he said quietly, disbelieving.

"Yes. Why wouldn't – Oh. Is this about...?" her eyes flicked up to Neji's headband, which she knew hid a binding placed upon him by his clan.

"The mark of the caged bird. Hai. Can even a caged bird fly?" he asked, as though desperate to know but afraid of the answer.

"Neji-kun, something that I have learned about birds that had their wings clipped, was that their feathers grow back," Fukurou said gently. "It's a complicated jutsu, isn't it?"

"Hai."

"Every jutsu has a weakness somewhere, a way to cancel or defeat it. If you like, you can visit me some times and we can work on finding a way of freeing you," she offered. "I quite like doing things that might upset Hyashi-sama, even if he doesn't know about them."

"Like teaching Hinata-sama how to fly?"

"Exactly."

"She really surprised Hyashi-sama when she came home from training, day before yesterday, and -"

"Can we fly now?" Naruto demanded, his dessert finished, unaware that he was interrupting.

"Apologies, Neji-kun," Fukurou said quietly. "Has everybody had enough dessert?" she asked the general table.

"Hai!" everyone responded.

"Then yes Naruto-chan, we may fly now."

"Yeah! Come on Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, pulling Sasuke up and dragging him off to get their broomsticks.

Kakashi and Kurenai performed a transportation jutsu to fetch their own, and popped back into the dining room in no time, broomsticks in hand.

"You've got to be kidding," Ino said, blue eyes wide and voice completely flat.

"That's what I said," Sakura told her friend. "But they aren't."

"What are we? Witches?" the blonde demanded.

"I am," Fukurou said calmly. "Please notice the wand, the use of broomsticks for flying. If you want I can go and fetch my black flowing robes and pointy hat even."

Ino gaped.

"Please may we start Fukurou-sensei?" Hinata asked, clearly eager to fly again.

"They are lined up in the yard. Don't go so high the air gets thin, alright?"

"Yes! Come on Neji-nii-san, Kiba-kun! You've _got_ to try this!" the girl said, eagerly grabbing the sleeves of the two boys that she had been seated between and dragging them out behind her.

"Hinata... out of her shell..." Ino stuttered, wide eyed. It was all a bit much for her.

"Flying lessons are apparently good for her," Fukurou said with a chuckle. "Come on Ino, just give it a go. I swear I'm not going to hex you so that you look like a beaver or anything."

"You could do that?" she squeaked.

"I spent eight years learning magic," Fukurou said. "In that time, a snob of a bully used that hex on _me_. Yes, I could do that. I can do a lot of stuff. Most of it, however, isn't really useful."

"I still want lessons," Kurenai said, holding up her new wand triumphantly.

"Yes Kurenai-chan, I know. How has the last spell I taught you been serving you?"

"My house has _never_ been so clean," she exclaimed, her red eyes wide. "I _love_ it!"

"Oh Kami-sama!" came Kiba's voice from outside, leading to a very fast mass-migration from the dining room to the yard.

Sakura and Shikamaru smiled as they saw Hinata going up fast, and her cousin and Kiba trying to follow, before rushing to find their own brooms to join them.

Hinata did a dive, scaring Ino, and came to a halt in front of Fukurou.

"I know it's gotten dark Fukurou-sensei, but will you please -?"

"Alright. I'll light the place up and fetch it out," Fukurou said, shaking her head at the girl who was probably her happiest genin. "_Lumos locale, accio snitch_."

The yard lit up, and two little cages with golden balls inside flew through the air at Fukurou, who caught them.

"Fukurou-san! We've got them!" Naruto said, bounding up carrying his broom, Sasuke following behind with his broom over his shoulder. "How do we fly?"

Fukurou went to stand by the broomstick that she had carved her own name into and, holding out a hand over it, said "Up!"

Looking at the others, she explained how it worked, before taking off gently, side-saddle. "This is harder though, so I want you to put a leg over, like that lot," she added, indicating her genin, and the still awed Kiba and Neji who were also already in the air.

Soon everybody was in the air, even Chouji, who had been worried that the broomstick might not lift him. Fukurou had assured him that his bulk just meant he wouldn't be battered about by a strong wind like the skinny kids would be.

Fukurou waited until everybody seemed comfortable on their broomsticks, and then called their attention to the little golden balls she had summoned.

"The trick is to catch them," she told them with a smile. "I've got two here, so we can all have ourselves a bit of fun. Whoever brings them back to me, well, I think I can come up with a couple of prizes. No attacking beyond a few kicks, punches or shoves though. I don't want anybody falling off and breaking anything."

"Yes!" Hinata said, smiling broadly.

"She's caught them both times we've played this game," Shikamaru said, rolling his eyes.

"You almost got it yesterday Shikamaru-kun," Hinata comforted, though her slightly wicked giggle ruined it slightly.

Everybody laughed gently and hovered, ready for the balls to be released, and as soon as Fukurou opened the cage doors, the balls were away.

Hinata was off like a rocket after one of them, Neji and Kiba both hot on her tail. Soon Kakashi, Kurenai and Chouji were after the same snitch as well. Naruto was racing Sasuke after the other one, though Sakura and Shikamaru were both in front of them, with Ino not far behind and Ibiki steadily creeping up on her position. Shino, however, hovered near Fukurou and started to send out his bugs.

"I think that's cheating, Shino-kun," Fukurou said when she spotted the insects starting to seep around the edges of the jacket. "Besides, those don't run on chakra. How about you just chase after them the normal way?"

Shino might have blushed behind his high collar, in fact Fukurou was sure he did, but the bugs retreated and he wrapped his hands around the broom handle, taking off at a good speed to catch up with Naturo and Sasuke.

Fukurou laughed when the snitch Shikamaru and Sakura were chasing abruptly changed direction and they were all forced to break off; applauded when Kiba did a barrel role to get past Neji and level with Hinata after their snitch; and nearly fell of her broom when Shino streaked past her after one of the winged balls.

At last, Hinata and Kiba – who had broken off chasing her and the snitch in front when the other had whizzed past his nose – came in to land with a golden ball in their fists. Kakashi swiped in at the last second and picked up Hinata.

"Ah, I seem to have caught the golden ball," he said smiling. "And a Hinata-hime as well! Do I get a prize, Fukurou-san?"

Fukurou landed her broom, laughing so hard she was getting a stitch in her side.

"Sure, you get a prize too Kakashi-kun, just put Hinata-chan down," she said, holding out the cage for Kiba's snitch while Kakashi obligingly lowered the white-eyed girl to the floor.

Once both snitches were locked up again, Fukurou led the three to her room and, opening her trunk which was full of magic paraphernalia and a few generally British things, fished around for a while before she had picked out something for each of the genin to go and show off to their friends.

To Hinata she gave a music box, very intricately made and with many very tiny moving parts. It was practically a work of art, but it had been a Christmas present from Remus and though Fukurou generally didn't think much of people who passed on presents, she really wasn't the music-box type.

Hinata carried it out before her reverently to show to Neji and the others.

For Kiba, Fukurou fished around a little more, until she found an old backpack – still in perfectly good condition – that had the same spell on it as the shopping bags had. The boy looked confused until Fukurou had demonstrated by shoving her broomstick in without any difficulty. Perhaps it wasn't as show-off-able, but the kid seemed to still think it was pretty cool, and he'd get good use from it too.

"What about me?" Kakashi asked when the kids had left.

"You cheated," Fukurou reminded him, trying not to smile, and failing.

"You said I'd get a prize anyway," he countered.

"Hm, so I did..." Fukurou said, tapping her chin thoughtfully for a moment as she locked her eyes on his one.

Kakashi had a vague sensation of fingers under the edge of his mask, a brief cool breeze, and lips pressed against his, but when he checked, his mask was in place and Fukurou was just smiling up at him.

"Was that an acceptable prize?" Fukurou asked innocently.

"I didn't really get the chance to enjoy it," Kakashi answered, realising that it _had_ happened, and he hadn't been imagining it.

"Well, I assumed you wouldn't want me to really look at you face," Fukurou said, a slight teasing edge creeping in to her smile.

Kakashi's right arm shot out and wrapped around Fukurou's waist, drawing her in close against him. His left hand rose to tug his mask down firmly, revealing his pale, handsome face to the gentle candle light of the room.

"In your case, I would make an exception, Fukurou-chan," he said, almost growled, before lowering his lips to capture hers, enjoying the chance to linger over her soft pink petals, though he didn't take it any further than that.

"Wow," Fukurou said, her black eyes slightly glazed, when Kakashi finally released her mouth from their imprisonment under his own. "Can I look forward to more of those in the future, Kakashi?"

"I certainly hope so. I've been wanting to do that for quite some time."

"Me too, for now though, we'd better get back to everybody else."

Kakashi nodded and returned his mask to its regular place.


	11. Chapter 11

Teams 8 and 9 were enjoying some joint training after a morning full of missions when an ANBU messenger arrived at the training grounds.

"Uchiha Fukurou-sama?" the anonymous man asked from behind his porcelain bear mask.

"Yes, I am Uchiha Fukurou," she said, leaving her students under Kurenai's watch to speak with him, not that her students really needed constant vigilance.

"There has been a complication with Uchiha Itachi-san's C-ranked mission. We received communication five minutes ago that the mission should have been ranked A, but that he will continue to protect the bridge builder as per mission outlines rather than leave the job half-done because the information was misleading," the ANBU reported.

"Thank you, Bear-san," Fukurou said, bowing slightly.

He disappeared in a cloud of chakra.

"Is something the matter, Fukurou-sensei?" Kiba asked, pausing for a moment in his strike.

"Yes, Kiba-kun. Something is very much the matter," she answered. "Not with you," she added hastily, and smiling quickly. "I just need to talk to Kurenai-san for a moment, and then I will probably have to leave my team with you for the rest of the afternoon."

"Sounds great to me!" the boy said.

Fukurou smiled and, returning the boy to his stance, went to speak with Kurenai.

"I am _not_ going to lose Itachi right now," she said in a whisper once she had explained the mission to her friend. "So I'm just going to clear it with the Hokage and then get Itachi out of there. I'll be as fast as I can, but if I'm not back by evening, will you make sure my team don't take the day off? They can't do missions without me, but if you get Sasuke to let them into the Uchiha complex, they can train at least."

Kurenai nodded. "I promise, but will Sasuke be alright on his own?"

"Thank you, and yes, he will if you tell him where and why I've gone. He's already housebroken and can cook over a camp fire very well." Fukurou assured, trying to make light of how quickly her youngest brother was growing up. "Besides, he'll still have Naruto with him, so he won't really be alone.."

Kurenai nodded again.

Fukurou went to give her team their last instructions for the day, and for the next day as she was unlikely to be able to give them then, as well as their homework – finding family scrolls of jutsu, which made Shikamaru smile for some reason – before she promised Sasuke to bring back their brother no matter what, exacted a promise that he would get along with and take care of Naruto, and disappeared with a gentle pop that was quite unlike the transportation jutsu that the ANBU had used.

~oOo~

"Hokage-sama, I request permission to go after my brother."

"How long will you take to deal with the situation? There are two S-ranked rouge nin from Mist, and the greedy, power-hungry man who hired them to make sure the bridge builder was dead and his work halted permanently. He's got many other thugs hired as well."

"I estimate a maximum of three days."

"The journey there is at least a week long!"

"I know you don't like magic, Hokage-sama, but sometimes it is very useful."

"Very well, Fukurou-san. Go."

She left.

~oOo~

Itachi was lying in the house of the bridge builder, hurting a little and his vision a bit fuzzy from over-use of the sharingan in his confrontation with Zabuza. He knew there was more to this mission than the old man claimed, but this was even worse than he had expected. At least he had got that medi-bag from the hospital like his sister told him to.

"You're an S-class idiot, Itachi-chan," a voice said above him.

_Speaking of my sister,_ he thought to himself with a smile.

"Kami-sama must love me, to send you out after my hide while I'm still alive to appreciate it," Itachi said, a gentle smile on his face, even though he couldn't see Fukurou's face clearly as she leant over him.

"Yeah yeah, shut it buster. Who are we dealing with?" she demanded, hands going to bandages and checking wounds with all the efficiency of a field medic-nin who wanted more training but was still going to do their damn best.

"Zabuza and, I think a young boy, his disciple. Apart from only being in it for the money and not trusting anybody but each other, they seem alright people," Itachi answered.

"That, Otouto, is because they probably _are_. It's the person they're working for who's the prat," Fukurou said, re-wrapping the injuries she had checked and moving onto the next ones.

"Need to guard the bridge builder at work, that's where they're most likely to strike. He'll be leaving soon, fool thinks they won't dare with others around."

"I'll take care of it. You get yourself fixed up. Can't have a hero of Konoha returning home all beat up from a C-ranked mission. Tou-san was planning a coup. You saved us all from civil war," Fukurou stated. Best to get it out of the way while he had some time to process that information.

Itachi was shocked. "Tou-san was what?"

"I find it hard to believe myself, but it was in his journals, the old fool. The story is that you read his journal one day and found out, went through everybody in the clan asking if they knew, and everyone answered yes, so you killed them for betraying their village. That's the official story. You carried out justice for your village, perhaps a bit too much like a vigilante, but you're a hero all the same."

"Ibiki-san came up with the cover, didn't he?"

"Yep. I'll get on the bridge builder."

"Thanks... Fukurou-nee-san."

~oOo~

Perhaps it was showing off, but Fukurou would claim simple impatience with the situation if, or rather _when_, anybody asked her afterwards to explain just _why_ she had used magic, rather than her carefully honed shinobi skills. It was also something her opponent's had no way or knowledge of how to counter, and that was all that she wanted right now. Zabuza couldn't really attack if he couldn't move, and as long as she held him hostage like that, the Haku kid was fairly well behaved – particularly when she said that the _reason_ she had done it was because it wasn't them she had the problem with.

The fat man who was employing them showed up then, griping about how it was just as well he had no intention of paying the mist nin if they were going to fail like this. That kind of upset Zabuza, and Fukurou was happy to release him to kill the lying business man. It was his issue after all.

"So it's a done deal then," Fukurou said when the man was dead and all his other flunkies had run off pissing their pants.

"What do you mean?" Zabuza said. "And for that matter, who are you? You're not the nin I fought yesterday."

"I'm his big sister and head of the Uchiha family of Konohagakure," Fukurou answered. _I feel like I should be lighting up a cig when I say that right now_. "I got word he was in trouble, and frankly the family is a bit depleted at the moment, and Sasuke-chan wouldn't handle it too well if his Aniki died on a mission. I'll be taking him home shortly."

"Your brothers are your precious people then?" Haku asked.

"They're a couple of them, yes," Fukurou answered, smiling down at the pretty young man. "What will you do now? I'd offer you a home in Konoha, but I get the feeling you'd just turn me down."

"I think your village would turn _you_ down," Zabuza answered.

"I'm a clan head. If I want to adopt a couple of people into my family then the Hokage can only fish for reasons why it could be a bad idea to deny me," Fukurou answered.

"Adopt?" the mist nin said, surprised and sceptical.

"Not in the traditional sense, you aren't going to become my kids all of a sudden and have to call me 'Kaa-san', but just giving you the Uchiha name and absorbing you into the family. You get a house on the Uchiha estate as a de-facto bonus," she added. "It's a nice place, but I'll give you until tomorrow morning to make a decision if you want to consider it. Itachi-chan isn't up to any kind of travelling before then."

Haku chuckled. "Itachi-_chan_?" he asked. He had, after all, seen the older teenager fight.

"He's still my little brother," Fukurou answered. "Well, I'll be back at the bridge-builder's house until then. I bet my idiot of a little brother tried to get up and opened all those injuries you gave him."

"Ah..." Zabuza grunted.

"He'd better learn from this that he's not invincible," Fukurou added, almost to herself, as she turned and began walking back down the bridge. "So, tomorrow morning, no more than an hour after sunrise if you don't mind," she called over her shoulder, waving to the mist nin and continuing on her way.

~oOo~

"It's over."

Itachi sighed in relief. "Good."

"I've invited them to be Uchihas in Konoha."

"I won't question that, but I want to."

Fukurou laughed.

"If they accept, I'm sure they'll be just fine."

"I'm worried about you, Fukurou-nee-san, not them."

"No need Otouto."

~oOo~

Fukurou smiled as she meditated in the almost-dawn light, aware of Zabuza watching her from the tree line to the east, and Haku with him, higher up in the wooded cover.

"Don't make a sound," she whispered, though her voice was clear in the stillness of the world just before it woke.

Haku jumped down from the tree and, though he hesitated, stepped forward. The boy hesitated again, looking over his shoulder at Zabuza, before he sat down with Fukurou and moved into meditation as well.

Itachi stumbled out of the house and, with a slight thump, sat down across from his sister, beside Haku, settling into his meditation as well.

Zabuza tensed when he saw the other boy, wondering if it was a trap, but as he watched, the only movement was of chests rising and falling, the slight movement of eyes behind their lids, and though he could not see it he was certain that their chakra moved as well, like a slow, calm river.

"Much better Itachi," Fukurou murmured some half hour later, adding another dimension the silence rather than breaking it, her eyes remaining shut. "You've clearly been working on your level of inner peace since the incident."

"Hai, Fukurou-nee-san. Thank you."

The silence returned, and Zabuza left where he sheltered himself and sat. He had never been one for meditating, but it seemed to do good for these Uchiha siblings, and Haku fell into it so naturally, it could not hurt to give it a try, even if it was just once.

When the sun was fully over the horizon, Fukurou hummed a content sigh, opening her eyes.

"Ah, thank you for sitting with us, Zabuza-san, Haku-san," she said, calling the others out of their meditation gently. "Will you be returning to Konoha with us?"

"Hai," Zabuza answered firmly. "What will you do if your Kage does not want us in your village though?"

"Become an S-class pain in the rear I suspect," Itachi snickered, holding his bandaged wounds so that his laughter wouldn't aggravate them.

Fukurou shrugged. "I honestly don't believe he will turn you away if I explain myself properly," she said, standing up.

In a little over an hour, there were no nin left anywhere near the bridge builder's house, or his work.

~oOo~

"Another adoption to the Uchiha clan?" Sarutobi nearly shrieked when Fukurou appeared in his office with a gentle pop and a pair of rouge mist nin.

"That's right," Fukurou said, smiling brightly. "Perhaps not a traditional way of replenishing a clan, but I think this one works much better."

The Sandaime hid his face in his hands and sighed deeply. "They will meet with Morino Ibiki, and _if_ he clears them, I'll put the paperwork through."

Fukurou's smile stretched as she escorted Zabuza and Haku to the ANBU torture and interrogation squad leader's office.

"Ibiki-sensei taught me when I was little," she explained to them as they walked. "He's sadistic, but he's also a big softy – just don't tell him I said so," she added.

~oOo~

"Welcome to the Uchiha estate!" Fukurou declared, opening the gates for the newest members of the family. Itachi was stuck in the hospital, his injuries getting looked over by professional medic-nin.

"Are those children also adopted members of the family?" Zabuza asked, indicating three different coloured almost-blurs that were just about bouncing around an outlined training area.

Fukurou didn't get the chance to answer as the three genin paused suddenly before two of them rushed at her with a cry of "Fukurou-sensei!"

"Ah, Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan, such an enthusiastic greeting for your sensei!" Fukurou said with a laugh. "But I do not get any greeting at all from Shikamaru-kun? Oh, I am saddened!"

"Hmph. Troublesome," he said, smiling. "Where did you go sensei?" he asked, approaching now and a regular pace to welcome her back.

"I had to save Itachi-chan's butt from getting whooped," she said seriously. "How did you behave for Kurenai-san yesterday?"

A general uprising of incomprehensible babble occurred at that moment, and Fukurou did nothing to abate it, apparently able to take it all in.

"I'm glad to hear it," she said happily when they had calmed down. "Now, I want you to practice a jutsu from your family scrolls that you've never tried before, while I show Zabuza-san and Haku-kun to their new rooms, alright?"

"Hai Sensei!"

Fukurou watched them for a few moments before gesturing for Zabuza and Haku to follow her.

"You didn't answer my question," Zabuza pointed out as they walked down the halls.

"They're my genin team, and while I wouldn't mind if they decided to move in, their families probably would," Fukurou answered.

"Are there any house rules?" Zabuza asked as he stepped into the room Fukurou gave him, while she indicated that the one beside was for Haku.

"Avoid breaking walls, we take turns cooking, and meditation before breakfast every day is my quiet time. You are free to join me or avoid me as you like, but I get nasty if people disturb me then, accidentally, incidentally or deliberately. That's it really, everything else is in Konohagakure's laws. I like it if we avoid breaking them, it's easier generally," she explained, her face completely straight as she spoke before a small smirk tugged at one corner of her lips.

Zabuza laughed from beneath his mask of bandages, while Haku chuckled. It was a serious issue, but Fukutou clearly was more imbued with a sense of humour than any shinobi the pair had come across before in their travels.


	12. Chapter 12

"Fukurou-sensei, since we trained in the morning, will we be doing missions once we've finished lunch?" Sakura asked as Team 9 and the two new Uchihas sat around the dining table having lunch.

"If you like, or we could just spend the whole day training," Fukurou offered. "You are getting through a lot of missions, and I think you could all stand to master a few more jutsu."

Team 9 had long exceeded the minimum requirement of D-rank missions completed to allow them to move on to C-rank missions, and more than enough to qualify them for the chuunin exam (apart from the required C-rank), and really, Fukurou was certain that once she let them start on C-rank missions it would be that much harder to get them back in line to get those important, team-building, _boring_ D-ranks.

"If we train now, and do missions tomorrow like we usually do..." Hinata said, thinking, "It's only one day less missions for us, and since we usually take four when we do missions, it means that some of the other teams will have a bit more to choose from today."

"Also, if we spend a whole day training, we have a more concentrated improvement rate," Shikamaru added. "I would like to keep training. It would be troublesome to interrupt today's progress with missions that wouldn't improve our skills in any way."

"Sakura-chan?" Fukurou asked, turning to the girl who had brought up the question, not minding that the boy was clearly irritated with the boring D-rank missions, as she was as well. "How does that sound to you?"

"I'd really like to keep training as well Fukurou-sensei, I was only asking because I thought it was an important question to ask," the girl answered, smiling back.

Fukurou nodded. "You were correct in that Sakura-chan," she confirmed. "Very well, training only today. Missions tomorrow."

Once lunch was finished and cleaned up, Zabuza and Haku were at a loose end.

"Think of today as your day off. Tomorrow a special chuunin will be coming over to help you with all the particulars of being Konoha nin that I didn't deal with today. You can train with us if you like, or there's a hot-spring bathhouse down the road if you like that option. You're not prisoners here after all," Fukurou said, adding a wink on the end.

"Sensei!" Sakura called from the training yard. "I'm sure I'm doing this right, but nothing is happening!"

"Yes yes, I'm coming," she called back, giving a smile and a wave to Zabuza and Haku as she left them to supervise her genin team.

"So, which interesting jutsu did you all find in your family scrolls?" Fukurou asked as she stepped out into the training area.

"I found a jutsu that regenerates," Sakura answered immediately, holding out the scroll to her sensei. "But nothing happens when I do the seal, so I think my form must be wrong. Will you check for me sensei?"

"I would be honoured to Sakura-chan, but tell me, what are you focusing _on_ for this jutsu? Every jutsu needs a target after all," Fukurou pointed out as she unrolled the scroll.

"My jutsu cuts up a lot of things, so Sakura-chan has been trying to repair the damage it does," Hinata said, stepping forward and handing over her scroll as well. "I don't have very good control of it yet."

Fukurou nodded as she accepted the scroll, opening it and giving it a quick scan before rolling it up again. One thing at a time, and Hinata clearly was having at least _some_ success, if she looked around at the cut up plants.

"Sorry about that Fukurou-sensei, I was _trying_ to hit the pole," Hinata said with a blush, indicating the still pristine rope-wrapped training post.

"It's alright Hinata-chan. I'd rather have a vegetable garden than an ornamental one anyway," Fukurou assured the girl with a kind pat on her head.

"But the cherry tree!" she protested, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Fukurou looked over to the old tree. There was a large branch lying on the ground beside it that had been attached last time she had checked. Looking up into the canopy of the tree, however, she smiled. "You missed the birds nest, and I rather like the view I have of it now. Thank you Hinata-chan."

"Sensei? Is this right?" Sakura asked as she formed the seals.

"Yes, that's what it says on the scroll," Fukurou said, though she was unsurprised when the plant Sakura had clearly been focusing on didn't respond in any way. "I've just begun studying medic-jutsu really, and it takes a lot of practice and extreme chakra control. If you like Sakura-chan, I can find a medic-nin to give you better training in this area. I can start you on the things I know already though."

"Hai! Thank you Fukurou-sensei!" the girl said, beaming brightly. "I want to become a medic-nin!"

Fukurou smiled at the girl and gave her a hug.

"Shikamaru-kun? You've been very quiet over there," Fukurou observed as she turned away from the pink-haired girl. "Not that you're usually a chatterbox."

Shikamaru silently handed over a scroll. "It looks like something that you should have in your family Fukurou-sensei, or something the Uchiha and Nara came up with together," he explained. "It's a shadow technique, but rather than physical shadows it pulls at the shadows in someone's... soul," he said. "When Tou-san saw me studying it, he said it was something the Nara had tried to do right, and ended up doing very, very wrong."

Fukurou unrolled the scroll and read it carefully.

"Dangerous stuff," she said at last. "And familiar. You're right Shikamaru-kun, it _does_ look like something our clans worked on together in the past."

Fukurou sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do: Hinata, without the use of chakra, go through the stances associated with your jutsu, because there is more on this scroll than just the forming of seals and the direction of chakra. It's a whole attack style, related to your gentle fist technique by the looks of it. Sakura, for chakra focus and medical jutsu, I'm going to suggest you meditate and sort through your chakra reserves. You all have three kinds within you apart from your elemental chakras. There is the chakra you are trained to use for nearly all of your jutsu, there is the chakra that medics channel for their jutsu and pull upon within their patients to help them heal, and the third is your most personal chakra – the one that lets you know when someone is standing too close or that you can use to convey emotion if you can learn to manipulate it like you do your other chakras. I want you to find these three and learn the different textures of them, intimately. Balancing on your hands, Sakura-chan, it will help your upper body strength, and meditating is only done in complete peace in the early mornings. You are both to yell for me if something happens. Shikamaru-kun, follow me. You are going to make a study of some of the Uchiha scrolls that relate to this one."

"Hai," Shikamaru answered while the girls got to work.

"Shikamaru-kun, just how many of your family's scrolls have you looked through?" Fukurou asked as she led the boy down the porches of the main house and towards the rear buildings, one of which was the Uchiha library.

"About half so far, sensei," he answered.

"And how did you find that experience?"

"Educational." _And troublesome_.

Fukurou chuckled and they continued in silence until the Uchiha clan head opened the door of the library.

"It might be a bit dusty, most of the scrolls go unread really, just the ones exclusively about the sharingan and the family's _favourite_ fire-jutsu really get read with any sort of regularity, so the ones that are completely dust free won't be all that interesting to you," Fukurou said, gesturing to the first row of scrolls they passed.

"Let's see... Fire-based, water-based, wind-based, lightning-based, earth-based... ah, shadow-related jutsu. It seems that one sharingan-free member of the family married a Nara some time ago, no children came of the union, so they made their jutsu their babies," Fukurou said, reaching down a scroll. "The true advantage of a large family," she added with a smile, "is when they all decide to add to the library."

"Hai Fukurou-sensei," the boy said, accepting the scroll with reverence. Being permitted to learn the secret jutsu of another family was a rare thing, and not to be taken lightly.

"Shikamaru-kun," Fukurou said, getting down on her knees and staring straight into the boy's eyes. "Like these members of my family, who made their jutsu their progeny, for me _you_ are my legacy. You and Hinata-chan and Sakura-chan. My little brothers and Naruto-chan, and now Zabuza-san and Haku-kun as well. I might have children of my own too one day, I might not, but right now I am very aware that the secrecy of clans is what cripples the village as a whole. All of these scrolls," she said, gesturing around the dusty section, "are being allowed to go to waste because no one cared to share the knowledge of them. There are no hordes of Uchiha to learn them all any more, and while there may be again some day, it will be a long day in coming."

"Does that mean I'm keeping this?" Shikamaru asked, clearly incredulous.

Fukurou smiled. "Until you have either mastered it, or decided that it isn't for you, yes. Though in all honesty, I'd like it back when you're done, so don't leave it out where your family's deer might get to it, alright? I'd rather add to the library, and have it open for everybody, than to just give the scrolls away."

Shikamaru nodded. "Just borrowing then, like the books in the Academy."

Fukurou nodded. "Right."

The two left the library and returned to the training area where Hinata and Sakura were continuing their training as Zabuza and Haku watched them curiously.

"Read that one with the other scroll beside it when you get home," Fukurou instructed Shikamaru, pointing to the one he had brought from his own family archive. "For now, work on your kicks and punches," she directed, indicating the training post. _I'm going to have to get them on the moving one soon_, she thought to herself as she considered Shikamaru's movements, as well as her memory of Naruto's and Sasuke's, as they were the ones who used it most, and it wouldn't hurt the girls in her team to have a bit more of a challenge either.

"May Haku join the training session?" Zabuza asked, his hand on his disciple's shoulder.

"Of course, though I don't really know much of where you're at to recommend exercises," Fukurou said, smiling at the request. "As members of the Uchiha family, you have full access to all the training equipment, unless someone else is using it, in which case you have to share or wait your turn," she added.

Zabuza chuckled and nodded to Haku, giving the boy a gentle push in the direction of another target to practice on.

Haku, Fukurou observed, had excellent technique with his senbon, and a very high level of accuracy when throwing only one of the foot-long needles. Doing sprays of them was, of course, a bit harder to get as perfectly accurate, but that was fine. Sakura seemed to be making progress with her chakra, though as she wasn't a Hyuuga she could only see obvious shifting, rather than all the intricacies of the flow. Hinata's stances, very like her gentle fist technique, were graceful, but there was more power to these motions, and the look of intense concentration on her face was both fiercely promising and utterly adorable. These were strikes that would hurt, even without chakra, and if she just used the gentle fist method of chakra application, it would be a new world of pain, but the cutting aspect left Fukurou a little confused. She's probably have to look over the scroll again, with Hinata, to understand how those painful looking jabs would actually _cut_. Shikamaru's progress in his taijutsu was excellent as well, though ... Fukurou shook her head at the idea, good as it was, in amusement. She'd give him some weights to hang off his limbs, perhaps even all of her genin should have some... It wouldn't hurt after all. She frowned and stepped down onto the training ground.

"Shikamaru-kun, you've let your foot slip out of line," she said, sweeping it out from under him. "I shouldn't be able to do that so easily," she added, extending a hand to help him up.

"Ah, troublesome sensei," he groused.

"At least I'm not a troublesome enemy, or you would have had a kunai at your throat when I got you down like that. The reason your stances need to be correct is because that is the most solid way for them to be," she told him. "Look, just an hour more, alright? Then we'll pull out our game of _go_ again."

Shikamaru nodded, a small smile returned to his face. He liked playing _go_ with Fukurou-sensei, she was even better than Tou-san at the game.

"Fukurou-sensei?" Sakura queried, her face scrunched up. "I think I've found one of the other chakra you were talking about, but... I'm not sure which one it is. How do I tell?"

Fukurou moved to Sakura, flipping onto her own hands to converse with the girl She stood still and inverted a metre away from her slightly swaying student, both of them upside-down.

"You know the feeling of the usual chakra that you use, and it isn't that?" Fukurou asked first.

"Hai, that chakra feels like compressed air and dry water, and always rushing," Sakura answered.

Fukurou nodded. That's how it felt for her as well. That was the standard chakra.

"How does this new chakra feel?"

"Like... a warm bed and a cool hand on my forehead and a soothing voice," Sakura answered, clearly struggling with the description.

"Comforting then," Fukurou said, smiling at the girl.

"Hai. It's soft and gentle, soothing."

"_That_ is most likely your healing chakra," Fukurou said with a smile. "You may right yourself now if you like, or you may continue to meditate until you have learned more about this one and perhaps your other chakras as well."

"I think I'm on a role, so I'd better stick at it right now," Sakura answered.

"That's my girl. When you try your family jutsu again later, you should have more success than you did before. I'll let you get back to it now," Fukurou smiled, sparking a smile in her student, as she flipped herself upright once more and went to check on Hinata.

"How are you feeling about your stances Hinata?"

"They're different," the girl said, not breaking, or even moving her eyes to look at her sensei while they spoke. "I feel like I _can't_ do them without putting a lot of power behind them, not like I'm used to, where even a light tap has always been enough if you have the control."

"I noticed that," Fukurou said, studying the form. "Hinata, what I want you to do is attack me, don't use your chakra at this stage, just your stances, and I want you to alternate between gentle fist and this new form. Can you do that for me?"

"Hai, I would not like to use these attacks on you if I were also using chakra, Fukurou-sensei," Hinata said, coming to rest and preparing to do battle with her sensei.

Fukurou took an old-style taijutsu stance and breathed deeply. "Begin."

Hinata struck, lunging with her left hand, aiming for Fukurou's shoulder. Fukurou blocked, but did not return the attack, even though Hinata's stance clearly indicated that she was ready for any that might have come. Fukurou watched the girl as she stayed on the defence, noting the difference between gentle fist and the cutting jutsu form in the hits she sometimes deliberately allowed to land on her.

"Halt," Fukurou said at last, seeing a sweat begin to break out on Hinata's forehead. This was about training, not exhaustion. Build up stamina slowly. "Very good Hinata-chan. I'm proud of you. Enough stances for now, you've worked up a sweat. I want you to join Sakura in assessing your chakras. You were listening when I explained earlier?"

Hinata nodded.

"Good. I believe it is important that all shinobi be in perfect harmony and control of all of their chakras. If you want a drink before you meditate, you may go to the kitchen," Fukurou said, smiling proudly at the smallest member of her team.

Fukurou bypassed Shikamaru, having already checked on him and promised him to continue their _go_ game shortly. She wanted to see what Haku was up to.

"You favour the senbon above the other weapons," she observed, seeing the target peppered with them.

"Yes Fukurou-san. They are easy to conceal and carry many of," Haku answered.

"They lack the close-range fighting edge though," Fukurou observed.

"I'm not really a close-range fighter, Fukurou-san."

"It's not the first choice for many shinobi, but that doesn't stop it being what can save your life sometimes," Fukurou pointed out. "I would not want something to happen to you simply because your close-range fighting was weaker than your distance attack. I assume you carry another weapon besides your senbon?"

"Hai, I have a short sword," Haku answered.

"You are proficient?"

"I am passable. Zabuza-san taught me some, but the techniques needed for my small sword, and his large one, are very different," Haku admitted.

Fukurou nodded.

"I'm not big on sword use personally, but I've know some people who use them, as well as some sword training being standard with shinobi on the list to enter into ANBU, who are equipped with a sword regardless of if they use it regularly or not. Would you let me find you a sword sensei?" Fukurou asked.

Haku's face lit up. "Hai! Thank you Fukurou-san!"

Fukurou smiled and patted the boy on the head. "You're a good kid," she said kindly. "I'll find you the best sensei I can. Go on get back to it," she added, jerking her head at the target, the smile still on her face.

"What was that?" Zabuza asked, jerking his own head in Haku's direction when Fukurou rejoined him on the porch.

"I offered to find him a sensei for his sword," Fukurou said. "He said you taught him some, but that because of the difference in the weapon sizes, much was different."

Zabuza nodded. "Thank you."

"That's what I do for my clan, and you're my clan now," Fukurou said, smiling at the tall man.

"Sensei! You promised me _go_!" Shikamaru called out, finished at last with his prescribed hour of taijutsu practice. He'd been working hard if the sweat was any indication.

"Yes yes, so I did," she answered the boy, pulling out her wand. She wanted to keep an eye on the training, subdued as it had become. " _Accio go._"

Turning to Zabuza she advised him "duck" just as the _go_ board and pieces rounded the corner of the house.

Settling it carefully on the patio, she gestured for Shikamaru to join her and sat down. She had him set up the game once more from where they had left off, scolding him for trying to give himself an advantage _again_. At least it was a different one to last time.

Another hour later, she sent her genin home, proud of the progress they had all made that day, and with a small 'to do' list of her own that wanted to be dealt with before dinner if possible.

The grocery shopping, the sensei for Sakura and Haku, weights for all of her genin, and retrieving Itachi from the hospital.

"Zabuza-san, Haku-kun, I have to go out. Would you like to join me or will you stay in?"

Haku stopped his training and Zabuza stood. Both clearly intending to accompany her.


	13. Chapter 13

"Shika? What are you doing now?" Shikaku asked his son, surprised to find the boy hanging from the awning, bent in the middle so that he had a view of the clouds.

"I thought I'd try some meditation Tou-san," the boy answered, not moving.

"Why that position? Normally when you want to think you -"

"Hai hai, but that's thinking. This isn't that," Shikamaru answered. "According to Fukurou-sensei, there are different types of chakra, so I'm meditating to try and get a feel for them within me."

"Why hanging from the ceiling though?"

"'Peace is only for the early mornings' according to sensei, so meditation after that time must be a physical challenge as well," Shikamaru answered.

"I suppose, but come down before your mother scolds you for leaving footprints on the ceiling."

Shikamaru abruptly dropped, quickly twisted and landed on his feet.

"Did you take that jutsu to your sensei today?"  
"Hai."

"What did she make of it?"

Shikamaru smiled as he started to tell his father about being allowed into the Uchiha library and being allowed to borrow a scroll from there to study.

"Will you look with me Tou-san? Sensei said to look at the two jutsu side by side, and I'd really like your opinion of them."

Shikaku laughed, something he hadn't done very often for some time. "Troublesome son, of course I will," he said, ruffling the boy's hair.

~oOo~

"How was training today Sakura-chan?"

Sakura's eyes lit up at her mother's question. "Mama, I learned about different chakra and made a start towards becoming a medic-nin and sensei says that she doesn't know much about healing jutsu but will teach me what she does know _and_ find me a sensei just for healing jutsu! Isn't it great?" the girl squealed, wrapping her arms around her mother happily.

Mrs Haruno laughed at her daughter's exuberance. It was so good to see her happy and enthusiastic for learning, and applying that learning.

"And the scroll you took with you today?"

"Fukurou-sensei says I formed the seals right," Sakura said, her smile falling slightly. "But I couldn't get it to work, so sensei set me to meditating about my different chakras, and we _think_ I've found my reserve of healing chakra, so perhaps if I try again tomorrow, after I meditate some more, I'll be able to do it!"

"Meditation?" Mrs Haruno asked, surprised.

"Hai!" Sakura enthused.

"Well, you can meditate any time at all sweetheart. Will you show me?"

"Hai!"

~oOo~

"How did you go with the scroll Hinata-sama?" Neji asked when he saw Hinata come through the gate.

"I had a bit of trouble controlling the direction of the cutting," Hinata admitted with a blush. "So sensei had me do the forms, get used to them, without using chakra for a while, and then meditate on my chakra exclusively."

Neji nodded.

"I am wanted to instruct Hanabi-hime, as your father is in a meeting. Will you join us, Hinata-hime?" the older boy asked.

"Chan," the girl said suddenly. "Please, Neji-nii-san?"

The older boy's face softened slightly.

"How about san? I mustn't be disrespectful," he compromised.

Hinata smiled. "Hai, and I would be honoured to join you and Hanabi-chan."

~oOo~

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled as he returned to the silver-haired jounin, today's mission – a cat – clawing into his jacket. "Why are we doing these dumb missions?"

"Because you are required to," Kakashi answered flatly, for what felt like the twentieth time. "If you want to go to the chuunin exams, you have to have at least fifteen D-ranked missions."

"Kakashi-sensei?" Ino asked, putting up her hand to try and get his attention from the loud-mouthed idiot. "What if we did more than one of these missions at once? It might make it go faster," she suggested.

Kakashi smiled under his mask, his visible eye curving in delight. He had been _waiting_ for one of them to suggest that. "And we may have found the smartest genin in our team," he said patting her on the head. "Yes Ino-chan, that would be an excellent idea. So, tomorrow when we go for missions, we shall take three, instead of just one."

"What about training, Kakashi-sensei?" Chouji asked. He was looking less plump in just over a month of being forbidden his crisps, and it was becoming apparent to both of his team mates that the boy was naturally big boned, like the rest of his family, and not fat as they had originally thought.

Kakashi rubbed his chin in thought, though he was putting it on for the kids.

"We will alternate. Missions all day one day, and training all day the next, until you have done your minimum requirement for D-rank missions. Then we will do missions one day, and training for two until I'm satisfied you're actually _ready_ for a C-rank mission," he said at last.

"I'm ready now!" Naruto yelled.

"You are not the only member on this team, Naruto, and neither are you ready," Kakashi scolded. "I can't take you out until you have at least mastered the basics of strategy, and learned how to be silent."

"What do we need to work on before we're ready, Kakashi-sensei?" Chouji asked, gesturing between himself and Ino. "It's not fair if you only tell Naruto-kun what he needs to work on."

Kakashi smiled. Despite how much he cared for Naruto, Chouji was rapidly becoming his favourite student because of his dedication to hard work and his flashes of cleverness.

Kakashi reached over to ruffle the Akimiji's hair. "Maybe you're the smartest," he said. "You're already working on them in training. Being physically fit and perfecting your chakra control. If you want I can teach you some of the jutsu I've copied over the years, or you could find some of your family's jutsu scrolls to practice from. Or both. Before I teach you any of mine though, you all need better chakra control. Naruto just happens to need to work on his patience as well."

~oOo~

"Kurenai-sensei! These D-rank missions are boring!" Sasuke and Kiba said, pleading.

"I know," she answered, smirking at them. "So the faster you get them done, the sooner we get to move on. Shino-kun, today you're in charge of which missions we take, so lets get to the missions office."

Shino nodded and turned, leading the way.

Kurenai, Sasuke and Kiba all watched, wide eyed, as the silent bug-nin searched through the piles of D-rank missions and chose five before he gave the likewise wide-eyed missions officer behind the desk a polite nod and turned back to his team.

"Well, that's one way to get through them," Kurenai said, chuckling and shaking her head.

~oOo~

"Gai-san," Fukurou said, smiling at the self-proclaimed 'Green Beast of Konoha'. "I was wondering if I could talk to you?"

"Ah, Fukurou-san, flower of the Uchiha clan, how may I aid you in your no doubt most youthful of pursuits?" the man asked, at probably the calmest he ever was, when not discussing completely serious matters that pertained to his precious genin, or in the field, where he was utterly professional.

"I would like to find some wrist- and ankle-weights for my genin. Would you happen to know where I could get -?"  
"AH! BUT OF COURSE!" he exclaimed, fire burning in his eyes at the idea of his training techniques being valued by others with genin to instruct. "HOW YOUTHFULLY YOUR FIRE BURNS FOR YOUR STUDENTS!" he added, striking a pose that showed how inspired _he_ was by the idea, before he led them to the shop where they could find the wanted supplies.

"He's for real?" Zabuza asked, sceptical, as the 'Green Beast' excused himself back to his own grocery shopping, where they had found him.

"Unfortunately, yes," Fukurou said, smiling and waving after the man before she turned to the various strength-training accoutrement. "He's a nice person really, and a very good shinobi, but very few people can appreciate his company for extended periods of time when he's not on a mission."

"Just too enthusiastic," Haku said, still staring at the door through which Gai had already left.

"Haku, would you like to try training with weights? I'll buy some for you if you want," Fukurou offered.

"Ah! Hai, Fukurou-san! I would like that very much!" the boy answered brightly. Perhaps if he built up muscle, people would stop mistaking him for a girl... of course, he didn't mind having a pretty face, but all the same, a little recognition of his masculinity please.

Fukurou made her purchases then headed over to the hospital. She had a brother to collect and a medic-nin to find. Of course, if she wasn't still _at_ the hospital, that would make the search a little harder. Fukurou _had_ been away for almost a decade after all, with only short visits home and no serious injuries at those times, so it was very possible. She didn't remember seeing her around the village anywhere, but she could hope it was just because she was very busy at the hospital.

~oOo~

"No, I'm sorry Uchiha-sama," the receptionist said as she signed Itachi's release papers. "She left the village some time ago, lives as a civilian now I think."

"Ah, thank you," Fukurou said, frowning slightly. "I was hoping she could tutor one of my genin who's interested in medical jutsu."

"We have many proficient medic-nin, if you want to ask one of them instead Uchiha-sama."

"Thank you, but I shall have to think about it some more," Fukurou answered, smiling again. She still had to find a sword sensei for Haku as well, but she _had_ seen the man she wanted to ask about that. It was just a matter of getting him to agree.

~oOo~

"Tamura-sama, I wouldn't dream of asking you to divulge your family's secret techniques, but you are the very best swordsman in the village, and young Haku has only the very basics of the weapon," Fukurou said, bowing to the older man, knowing she had toed the edge of offence by asking him to teach one of her clan.

The man tugged at his lower lip, thinking about it.

"Tou-san!" a female voice called as the door slammed open. A girl with two buns on her head and a pink shirt stood there. "Ah, sorry Tou-san for interrupting," she said, stepping back and bowing to the occupants of the room. "I just wanted to practice with you."

"Wait for me in the yard, Tenten," he said, smiling fondly at his daughter.

"Hai, Tou-san," she said, bowing again and shutting the door.

"Exclusively the art of the sword," the man cautioned. "I agree," he said, nodding. "Is he attached to a team?"

"No, Tamura-sama," Fukurou said. "Haku was adopted to the Uchiha clan recently, and from beyond the village."

The man grunted. "Very well, then he can train here every morning from ten. He is to bring his own bento; this is training, not social visiting. I will continue his tuition until four in the afternoon. After that is not my concern regarding the boy."

"I am sure that both he and the village shall benefit from your instruction, Tamura-sama. Thank you very much," Fukurou said, bowing again to the man before rising to leave.

"I am glad to see that you are nothing like your father," Tamura said as he escorted Fukurou to the gate. Itachi had taken Haku and Zabuza back to the Uchiha estate, rather than wait around through the discussion.

Fukurou smiled and bowed once more.

~oOo~

When Hinata left the Hyuuga complex the next morning to meet her team, Neji left with her. They were both headed for the Hokage Building, so they might as well go together, particularly since they were actually getting along these days.

"Neji-nii-san, does Rock Lee-san really try your patience so much?" she asked, giggling at the way the older Hyuuga bemoaned the other male genin in the team.

"He's just so hopeless!" Neji exclaimed. "He wants to be a 'genius of hard work', and treats me like his rival the way Gai-sensei does Hatake-san."

Hinata giggled again. "I've never seen that," she said.

Neji pulled up short as they turned the last corner before the Hokage Building came into view.

"I think you're about to, Hinata-san," he said.

Team 9 and Team Gai weren't the only teams meeting at the Hokage Building that morning it seemed. Teams 7 and 8 were there as well. That meant Kakashi and Gai, with an audience, which would spur Gai to further heights of, Neji could only supply the word lunacy, while simultaneously encouraging Hatake to new levels of deliberate indifference.

~oOo~

"ETERNAL RIVAL! I challenge you to a -!"

"Not right now, Gai-san," Fukurou chuckled, interrupting the man before he could think up some strange competition. "Your genin are here, and I expect you need to get to the missions office."

"Thank you Fukurou-sama," Neji said, earnestly. "He is embarrassing when he gets like that."

The girl of the team, who Fukurou recognised from the day before as Tamura-sama's daughter, Tenten, nodded vehemently as well.

"That's alright Neji-kun," she answered. "But I'm glad I ran into you. I wanted to invite you to dinner. I did say I'd help you with that seal after all."

"Sensei?" Hinata asked, confused.

Fukurou turned to the girl and lay a gentle hand on her head. "How about everybody come for dinner? Say, this coming Saturday at 6? You can even stay over night if you like."

The genin of teams 7, 8 and 9 all cheered, Kakashi and Kurenai nodded their agreement to the idea, as did Tenten, though Gai and Lee seemed a bit unsure.

"And you can come by earlier and we'll work on it, alright?"

Neji nodded.

"Good then, everybody can bring a plate to share, and we'll make a party of it. Now, Team 9, I got here early and already collected our missions for the day, so lets get to it!"


	14. Chapter 14

"I did not come equipped for cleaning the _bottom_ of a lake, Fukurou-sensei," Sakura said, eyeing the cold water apprehensively.

"That's alright Sakura-chan, I can dry clothes off easily, but I feel that you need to be able to swim, and fully clothed is usually how you will find yourself doing it on missions – in an emergency situation," Fukurou explained.

The team had done their usual four, simultaneous missions around Konoha already, and were looking forward to training in the afternoon, only for their beloved sensei to pull out another mission scroll.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru said, kicking off his sandals and dropping his headband with them. They were the heaviest items of clothing he was able to quickly discard, and he'd rather not get hit by one of the girls on his team for taking off his pants to go swimming.

Sakura sighed and did likewise, sandals and headband dropped beside Shikamaru's, and she waded into the water as quickly as possible, so that she could become numb to the chill hopefully sooner rather than later.

"Hinata-chan, you too," Fukurou said gently. "And your jacket will weigh you down when you're swimming, very much. So that will be something you take off with your sandals as the things you take off first before diving in."

"H-hai, Sensei..." Hinata stuttered. "I'm just not very comfortable without it."

"I appreciate that Hinata-chan, I really do. I used to wear something similar once myself," Fukurou said, thinking of how easy it was to hide from the strange magical world while swathed in the robes that were the uniform. "But you need to leave it behind for this."

Hinata nodded and took off the jacket, laying it over her kicked-off sandals and dropping her headband on top.

"Go and get used to the temperature," Fukurou said, straightening and kicking off her own sandals, the Konoha headband that had been tied around her arm, however, stayed on. As the rest of her wardrobe that day was skin-tight, she left it on as well. Running a moment across the water, she dived straight in when she judged it deep enough. When she came up, she trod water a moment, wiping her cropped black hair out of her face before pulling long, powerful strokes until she reached her students and was able to stand on the sandy bottom.

"The lake isn't too deep, only about three metres at the deepest, and I want all the garbage collected up into two piles a couple of metres away from our things. One pile will be actual garbage, the other will be for things that are still useful, and have probably been dropped by genin who trained here before you," Fukurou told them all, smiling as she stood with the water flowing around her torso. "I will also be helping with this one, rather than just supervising and directing you."

The genin nodded and they all dived.

~oOo~

The days between then and the Saturday of the much anticipated dinner passed quickly. The Uchiha estate was thoroughly cleaned under the power of Fukurou's wand, and the floors polished by a quartet of racing boys while Zabuza watched and Fukurou laughed. Lanterns were hung around, futons aired and rooms made ready, food was cooked – and Fukurou was very impressed with Zabuza's culinary abilities. It was due to be his turn to cook that night, but owing to the large dinner everybody was helping out, though he still made most of the delicious-smelling dishes.

"Fukurou-san!" Naruto called, pulling the clan head – and only female member – from her admiration of Zabuza's cooking. "Neji-san is here!"

"He's early," Zabuza commented, a frown creasing his brows. "I thought that was improper."

"I asked Neji-kun to come early. I'm going to try and help him unlock a curse jutsu," Fukurou answered, smiling and wiping off her hands before excusing herself to greet the boy.

~oOo~

"I don't suppose you managed to swipe the scroll that explains how it is applied," Fukurou joked as she welcomed Neji and gave Naruto an appreciative ruffle of his hair.

"No Fukurou-san," the boy answered. "Will it still be possible to make some progress without it?"

Fukurou nodded, smiling kindly. "Of course, the scroll would just make it easier. Come with me to the Uchiha library, we might be able to find something there about ... at least something similar, and it will be away from the noise of my family, so that we can meditate a bit."

"Hinata-san claimed you say that quiet is only for the mornings, and a shinobi must be able to perform well despite distractions," Neji said, surprised.

"Normally, yes that's true. But this is something more delicate, and needs to be treated as such. You received this mark in a quiet environment, you shall endeavour to remove it in the same kind of situation," Fukurou answered, opening the door to the – finally dusted – library.

"Is it so much used?" Neji asked, his pale eyes taking in all the scrolls, as well as the books from Fukurou's time at Hogwarts that had been recently added.

"No," Fukurou laughed softly. "I just finally evicted the spiders and dusted today. Hm, seals, seals, seals..." she muttered to herself, bypassing shelves after shelves until she reached the scrolls near the back. The easiest place to remember where something is apart from right at the front: the very rear. "Old family contracts with certain nin-beasts? Huh, didn't know we had any... Aha! ways to seal chakra!" She declared triumphantly, withdrawing a scroll from the shelves.

Fukurou sat down on the floor and gestured for Neji to join her. "The floors were lovingly polished today by ... I believe it was Itachi in this part of the estate, so let's unroll this and see what we have."

Neji nodded and the study began, broken occasionally by intense meditation, and Neji taking off his headband so that Fukurou could study the seal that had actually been placed _on_ him.

"The problem really," Fukurou said with a sigh when they heard Naruto yelling his welcome to people at the gate and decided it was time to stop for now. "The _problem_, is that it's very easy to add to seals, making them stronger, but it's actually very hard to remove an original power seal, like this one."

Neji slumped slightly, resigned to his fate once more.

"Hey!" Fukurou said, shaking his shoulder gently. "I said _hard_, Neji-kun, not _impossible_. We'll figure it out yet."

"Ah, thank you, Fukurou-senpai," the boy said, standing up.

"My pleasure, Neji-kun, and you are free to come over any time, for any reason at all," Fukurou said, as they joined the others, and made sure that Zabuza heard her say so, since he seemed to be staying home most days lately, rather than going off on missions, though he said that once the Academy started up again, he would be taking a position there.

~oOo~

Fukurou had gone around and invited a few more people than just the genin teams and their sensei to the dinner tonight, so she was pleased to welcome Mornio Ibiki, Nara Shikaku, Hyuuga Hanabi, Tamura-sama, Umino Iruka, and a couple of extra-special guests it had taken her several hours to find – using magic to help, which had sped it up considerably – who Fukurou was pleased to introduce Sakura to particularly. They were the best medic-nins Fukurou had ever had the misfortune to need to meet; Senju Tsunade-hime and Mitarashi Shizune, a relation of the infamous Mitarashi Anko, who had also been invited but begged off for reasons of wanting to avoid Gai and a preference to getting drunk rather than hanging out with genin, despite the chance to scare them and hang out with Ibiki and Itachi.

She had also returned to Diagon Alley and purchased more broomsticks. After the last dinner where she'd needed to move quickly, she had thought ahead and made an earlier trip to procure the equipment, and had everything ready in the rear yard. She'd even snuck the broomsticks from Naruto's and her brother's rooms so that they were with the others. She couldn't really do anything about Kakashi's and Kurenai's, as they had taken their broomsticks home with them. Ibiki, small mercies, had left his behind, so she _did_ have his laid out with the others.

That, however, was for _after_ dinner.

Right now, a little magical light show was in order. It was a party after all, and even if shinobi were rarely impressed by tricks, these ones would still be shiny enough to entertain most of them.

"Fuu-nee-san, can I get out my fireworks?" Sasuke asked quietly between bursts of coloured lights from her wand.

"How about after we've had dinner, just before dessert, when it's darker and we can enjoy them more?" she suggested, firing off what she had decided would be her last spell, the Patronus. Hers was an otter, a creature which reminded the girl of her mother when she had been much, much less burdened with a stern husband and genius children, and the group enjoyed watching the pure white, glowing animal running around and frolicking for a while before slowly fading away, which thankfully needed no further explanation as the final trick of the night.

Fukurou directed everybody to the dining room, indicating that every place had a name for a reason, though if people wanted to get up and move after the first course, then they were welcome to, and with a flick of her wand sent the various platters, bowls and fancy dishes to gently hover their way around the table at a regular pace, allowing everybody to serve themselves what they wanted, and according to their knowledge of their own stomach's capacity. A lot better, she thought to herself, than simply serving everybody the same amounts of every food, especially since there was so much of it.

~oOo~

"So Sakura-chan," Tsunade said, resting herself with one arm on the table while the other caught food from the passing dishes and settled it onto her plate. "Fukurou-san tells me you want to learn medical jutsu."

"Yes Senju-sama," the awed girl answered politely, fully aware that she was speaking to a descendant of the First Hokage. "I want to be able to save lives and help people, not just kill others to protect those I care about. It's challenging, but Fukurou-sensei says that I'm getting better at the jutsu she's been teaching me, though I still haven't made much headway with the ones from the family scrolls."

Tsunade smiled indulgently at the girl. She had heard this from Fukurou herself, when the girl had come charging into the gambling den looking for her. It had been quite a shock, and as the last time she saw Fukurou was when she was still in single-digits, she had mistaken her for another debt collector until she had spotted the Leaf headband.

"You may use my given name, Sakura-chan," Tsunade offered. "What sort of jutsu have you been learning?"

"Ah – Fukurou-sensei has directed my learning on how to heal scrapes and cuts mostly," the girl answered, choking a moment at the invitation to address this powerful and beautiful woman by her given name. "Skin repair. I can get it to scab over quickly, and if I have time I can get the wound about half healed, but I'm still not very good yet."

"How long have you been studying these jutsu?" the purple-haired woman on Sakura's other side, Shizune, asked, joining the conversation.

"A-almost a week," the girl answered.

Both women froze. A girl not being trained by an experienced medic-nin, in a _week_ was getting basic, shallow flesh-wounds half-way to healed in ideal conditions?

"Fukurou-sensei said she was going to try and find me a special sensei just for my medical jutsu," Sakura said, excitement with the prospect radiating from the girl. "She hasn't said anything about it lately though," she added, a little less enthused.

The two women locked eyes over the girl's head, and nodded.

"Actually Sakura-chan, Shizune and I are both medic-nin," Tsunade said, smiling at the girl. "I specialise in trauma victims, do you know what that means?"

"People who are hurt badly, usually physically, sometimes psychologically. Trauma victims are usually considered to be touch-and-go from a medic-nin perspective, regardless of the _type_ of trauma," Sakura recited.

Tsunade smiled. "A very good answer. Yes, I fix people's broken bones and torn flesh, their internal bleeding and their punctured vital organs. Sometimes I even drag people back into their minds when they've suffered from a really nasty genjutsu. Shizune on the other hand, is a toxins specialist."

Sakura turned to Shizune. "Poisons and antidotes, right?" she asked, trying to seem professional, even if she wasn't really yet.

Shizune smiled. "That's right. I attack my enemies with lots of different poisons, and I help my allies by providing anti-bacterials, anti-viruses and anti-venoms."

"And Fukurou-san asked us if we would like to teach you," Tsunade added gently.

"Really Tsunade-sama?" the girl asked, wide eyed and hopeful.

The two women laughed. "Yes, she tracked me through fourteen villages and dragged me back to Konoha, just for you," Tsunade said, smiling at the girl, "and now that I've met you, I can see why."

Shizune lay a gentle hand on the young girl's shoulder. "Sakura-chan, you've got yourself two more sensei to learn from."

"Thank you!" Sakura exclaimed, bursting with happiness.

Tsunade and Shizune laughed again, wrapping an arm each around the pinkette in an embrace.

~oOo~

"I think that went well," Fukurou whispered to Kakashi, nodding in the direction of the little group-hug that was going on further down the table.

"You're giving over your genin to be trained by one of the legendary sanin?" Kakashi asked in surprise.

"No, she's still my genin, but she wants to learn medical jutsu, and I just don't know enough to be useful. I can and will still supervise every other aspect of her training, she's just going to be getting a nice supply of tricks from someone who knows more than me as well," Fukurou answered, teasingly.

"I can't believe you found her and brought her back," he said. "Kami, I'm still having trouble with Tamura-sama being willing to teach the sword to Haku-kun."

"I'm just likeable."

"Well, that's true. Thank you, by the way, for making sure that Gai and his clone are as far away from me as possible for the night."

"You're welcome."

~oOo~

Kurenai was discussing various training methods with Itachi; Tenten was talking weapons and make up with Ino and the young Hanabi; Sasuke and Naruto spoke almost exclusively to each other, though sometimes they also included Iruka, who was content to talk mostly to Tamura and Haku otherwise. Zabuza was discussing different methods of inflicting pain on a person with Ibiki, while Kiba engaged Hinata away from her neighbours and they both fed Akamaru. Gai and Lee were being loud around a very stoic Shino, though sometimes he ventured a comment as well, shocking both of them and smiling behind his collar for as long as they were silent, though he seemed to not mind them really, and even smiled sometimes at things they said. Chouji fixed his attention on Shikaku as the man explained to him about merchant caravans, while Neji and Shikamaru were discussing Fukurou's generosity with the Uchiha family library and the various things they had found, or intended to look for in their own.

The meal, Sasuke's fireworks, and the subsequent dessert, were all as much of a success as the conversation, and all present enjoyed the evening, particularly when, after the last of the dishes had been cleared away and magically cleaned and put in their correct places (dishes brought by guests lining the kitchen bench ready to be packed away by their respective owners again), the flying began, approximately as it had at the previous dinner.

Hinata dragged Kiba out directly, though as soon as he was up he was racing the smaller girl; Kakashi and Kurenai teleported, returning with their own broomsticks; Tsunade, Shizune and Tenten all chorused "You've got to be kidding," to which Sakura and Ino chimed "That's what _we_ said," and laughed.

Gai immediately proposed a challenge to his 'eternal rival' involving the broomsticks.

"May we borrow one of the flying golden balls, Fukurou-san?" Kakashi asked, knowing he couldn't turn it down this time.

Fukurou nodded, summoned the snitches, and explained what they did to Gai while leading those who had not already followed Hinata and Kiba's example out to the yard where the broomsticks were laid out. Whistling shrilly, she waved the already air-borne genin down.

"Gai-san is going to compete with Kakashi-san to catch the snitch, so don't any of you grab it if it goes past alright?" she instructed them with a smile and a wink at the two who had won at the last dinner.

Heads nodded and took off once again, the rest of the experienced flyers calling their broomsticks "Up!" and those without the experience following their examples tentatively.

"Comfortable Gai-san?" she asked, unsure and wincing at the very sight of his seat on the broomstick.

"Yosh!" he declared, full of confidence and determination.

Fukurou looked at Kakashi, who just shrugged, hovering easily. With a sigh, she released the snitch, and then they were off. Just as she was getting onto her own broom, Kakashi returned, snitch in hand, Gai trailing behind sadly. She laughed and accepted it, locking it up once again before pulling out a larger ball, about the size of Lee-san's head, and slightly weighted.

"Hey Kiba-kun!" she called, lobbing the ball at him, as he wasn't too far off the ground or going particularly fast at that moment, having just come out of his dive. "Catch!"

The game of catch continued, the ball being passed and intercepted by mostly the genin, Haku and Hanabi, though Kurenai and Itachi joined in now and then, as did anybody else for at least the time the ball was being thrown at them.

Tamura-sama left shortly after that, impressed with the broomstick flying, though disinclined to continue the hobby, and Ibiki likewise took his leave at that time. Gai and Lee both left not long after that, intent on their regular late night training. Shikaku shook Fukurou's hand at the gate, thanking her for the effect she had been having on his son, and Kurenai started the movement for the girls to the large room that had been set up for slumber-party activities, their futons all laid out and over-night bags set beside them. Chouji and Shikamaru were the first boys to follow Kurenai's example, though they headed for the room set up for the boys, rather than the girl's one.

Zabuza and Itachi both retreated to their own rooms rather than join the slumber party, but Haku, Naruto and Sasuke all fell into their futons in the communal room happily; Neji, Kiba, Shino and Kakashi on their heels. Kakashi however only stood in the doorway to make sure they were all settled before he bid them goodnight and, switching off the light, closed the door. The sound of the boys starting to talk about missions and training drifted softly through the barrier, but he wasn't worried about it being a problem. He was only going to be in the next room anyway, so if they got out of hand he'd be able to deal with it.

Ino, Sakura, Tenten, Hinata and Hanabi all headed towards their room with a little ushering from Fukurou, though once they'd reached the room they were happy enough to settle in. Kurenai had been obliging enough to set up the home-beauty-spa pieces that Fukurou had prepared earlier. Hearing the happy girlish squealing attracted Shizune and Tsunade, and soon they were all happily painting concoctions onto their faces, colours onto their nails, and rubbing creams into their hair and every other part of their skin, the older women giving the younger girls advice about men and sharing some very different mission stories.

Fukurou smiled and joined them until, one after another, the facials were removed and eyes closed to sleep. At that point, she got up off the futon she had been sitting on with Kurenai and turned off the light, slipping out the door and heading back to her own room just beyond the wall, where Kakashi was already curled up on the second futon she had rolled out in there beside her own. He would sleep in his mask if he had to, but he preferred not to, which was why he was here rather than anywhere else in the Uchiha compound for the night.

He'd moved back into his apartment the same day the Uchiha's had moved back into the cleaned up Uchiha complex, and despite that they had regularly met for a quiet night out since, he had confessed that living alone was a lot more lonely the second time around. The only reason she hadn't immediately helped him move into the Uchiha estate at that moment was because he had also said that he wanted to court her _properly_, and that as she was the head of her clan, and he was the last of his, then the whole village would probably be watching. Those members of it that had nothing better to do anyway, which sadly meant the elders who were most likely to sneer deeply and want to refuse a them a marriage licence.

Fukurou had given Kakashi another kiss at that, through his mask, as they were in the middle of the street when he said it, but he'd returned it, despite the cloth between them, wrapping his arms around her waist while hers locked around his neck.

She smiled as she looked at his face now, relaxed and exposed as he slept. Changing into her sleeping yukata, Fukurou slipped under her own futon and went to sleep herself, happy with how the evening had gone, utterly content when she felt Kakashi's hand wrap around hers on top of their futons.


	15. Chapter 15

Neji visited the Uchiha estate every week to work with Fukurou on weakening the seal branded into his forehead, an occurrence which Tsunade – who along with Shizune was living with the Uchiha while they taught Sakura – found intriguing to the point that she sometimes sat in and gave her opinions of the matter as well, the most useful of which was to get her old team mate Otsuka Jiraiya to have a go at it.

"He may be an idiot and a pervert, but he knows seals," she said, smirking. "He was also jounin instructor to Naruto's father, so he'll be able to pass on a few of his family's jutsu to the kid while he's here, so long as we keep him away from the peeping holes he drilled in the bath house fences when he was younger."

In that same time, Sakura's medical jutsu were steadily improving, as was her knowledge of poisons and mixing them – and their antidotes as well, of course. Fukurou kept the girl up on her taijutsu and her genjutsu, but for weapons Shizune seemed to be inspiring the girl rather heavily, as well as the look in her green eyes every time Tsunade gave a display of strength – so she drifted towards extra training with her special sensei apart from her team training times.

Shikamaru's progress through both his family library and the Uchiha library was impressive, and Fukurou was glad to encourage him, sometimes with a helpful visit from his father, who could provide experienced advice regarding the Nara jutsu style. Many games of _go_ were played as well, to Shikamaru's delight and Shikaku's amusement.

Hinata finally mastered the style from the first scroll that she had chosen, which she said was called 'subtle knife', making Fukurou laugh.

"Your family just loves oxymoronic names, don't they Hinata-chan?" she said. "I don't think there's anything subtle about a knife, any more than a fist is generally regarded as gentle."

Hinata laughed at that too once it had been explained, and they had moved on to another form from the Hyuuga library eventually including a small technicality from the Uchiha library in the execution to make it even stronger.

"One day, Hinata-chan, you will write your own scroll about techniques that you have invented, and those will be the most powerful that your clan will have ever seen since their dustiest scroll was written," Fukurou said, smiling proudly as she hugged her student.

They were doing D-ranked missions every Monday and Friday now, spending more time training and perfecting their team work than anything else, but Fukurou knew that Kakashi and Kurenai were both picking up the other days very happily. Their teams needed to learn patience, between Naruto on one side, and a team with _three_ boys on the other. Kiba and Akamaru came to visit Team 9's training some times, with permission from Kurenai of course, and as Sasuke and Shino usually followed Kiba's lead, and they were included in the training all together.

Sasuke awoke his sharingan in a spar with Shikamaru, which surprised everybody and pleased him immensely, until he realised that the new training his Fuu-nee-san was determined he undertake so that he had full control would leave him more than ready to fall into his futon at the end of the day. He was even reading the scrolls about the further stages of his sharingan that he had yet to awaken. According to Fukurou, it was only a matter of time once it started, and he would _know his theory_, or else. Sasuke never questioned "or else's" from his sister, he didn't want to know what kind of extra training or horrible hexes she might inflict upon him.

Naruto's extra-curricular lessons under Jiraiya had him improving in leaps and bounds, which his team mates were hard pressed to keep up with until Kakashi got their parents in on the act, since they both came from recognised clans with particular specialities. He trained his genin for the hours between shortly after dawn until two in the afternoon in what he was best at, and then supervised practice of family jutsus until four, asking pertinent questions, making the kids think about what they wanted to happen and what they would need to do to make it work. After that, they went to the Uchiha estate – a place rapidly becoming a hub for the year's genin – and trained with Fukurou, comparing what they were doing with what was written on the scrolls they were working from, and then after a quick feel-good flight and snitch-chase, everybody went home again.

~oOo~

It was a Sunday, and Fukurou got something of a surprise visit.

Tamura-sama had arrived for a lesson with Haku, as was usual – the boy went to the Tamura house five days, took Saturday off, and Tamura came to the Uchiha estate on the last Sunday of the month to give Fukurou the opportunity to watch the training session while she supervised her own genin at the same time. Normally, however, Tenten did not accompany her father, yet there she stood, sandalled feet, blue pants, pink shirt, and buns on top of her head like cute little ears.

Tamura-sama went straight for his own waiting student, bowing briefly to Fukurou as he passed her where she stood on the porch. He had come to appreciate her as a good teacher, and not simply a better person than her father had been.

Haku bowed low to his sensei and they moved to a further training area to begin.

Tenten approached Fukurou, and she groaned with her own mind at the terrible pun at the idea that the girls step was _tentative_.

"Hello Tenten-chan, how have you been lately?" Fukurou asked, trying to remind the girl that she had been among the group of giggling girls with mud masks on their faces at that slumber party... over a month ago now. "We haven't really had the chance to talk at all for some time, have we?"

"No, Fukurou-senpai," the girl said, a small smile on her face. "I've been alright, Gai-sensei and Lee-kun are... well, the same," she added, pulling a face, though her expression turned serious as she moved on, and Fukurou silenced her chuckling at Tenten's expression over the two green-clad members of her team. "Neji-kun seems to visit a lot though."

Fukurou nodded, understanding dawning. "I've been trying to help him pull a prank on Hyuuga-sama," she told the younger girl quietly, a conspiratorial smile on her face.

Tenten was clearly sceptical. "Neji-kun isn't really the kind for pranks, Fukurou-senpai."

Fukurou chuckled. "He's meditating in my library right now," she offered, and giving a glance over her team to make sure they weren't going to hurt themselves, mess something up too badly, or be tempted to remove the weights she had given them some months ago and added to the previous day, she led Tenten through the house.

"You're right, Neji-kun isn't really a prank-pulling sort of young man, but this isn't the standard sort of prank either. This is something that he wants for himself, with an added bonus of possibly ruining Hyuuga-sama's day when he finds out. Hinata-chan and Hanabi-chan are helping out too, with chakra and scrolls respectively," Fukurou explained, without explaining.

Tenten thought in silence the last few metres before Fukurou opened the library door. She was about to step through when Fukurou halted her.

"How long does your hair take?" she asked.

"I'm used to it, so it only takes about five minutes," Tenten answered, confused by the question.

Fukurou smiled and undid it before Tenten was able to protect herself. Using the two hair ties she had released from their duties, she put them both to the task of holding a small portion back allowing the rest of Tenten's brown hair to flow down her back.

Tenten stared, only to receive a wink in return and then Fukurou was leading her through the shelves to a source of concentrated chakra activity.

A man with a strong, large build and copious amounts of wild white hair – unfamiliar to Tenten – sat with his legs crossed, opposite Neji who was sitting in the same position on the floor by the last shelf.

Fukurou and Tenten watched in silence as the green mark displayed on Neji's forehead slowly and visibly faded. Not completely, but faded all the same. When it paled no further, the men opened their eyes.

"Hyuuga-san, I believe for the last stage of removal you shall need the assistance of someone from the head branch of your family," the stranger said. "I also believe you were only able to get so far without such assistance because you are so closely related."

"Thank you Otsuka-sama," Neji answered.

"I'm sure Hinata-chan will be happy to help you Neji-kun," Fukurou said, announcing their presence to the men, who had been unaware of them as they were so deep in the picking apart of the jutsu. "Once her training for the day is completed, of course."

"Hai, Fukurou-senpai," Neji said, smiling. His eyes shifted then, and widened when he spotted Tenten. His hand moved immediately to snatch up his headband and hide the mark. "Tenten-chan!"

"Hello Neji-kun," she said shyly.

He quickly fixed his headband in place before he looked at her again. "You hair is different," he said, surprised both that it was different, and that he had said so before anything else.

Tenten blushed, and Fukurou smiled.

"It's really pretty down like that, but I think I like your buns better," he added. "Maybe it's just because I'm used to them."

Tenten blushed further.

The old man laughed loudly and stood.

"Come on Jiraiya-san, you're already getting several books out of your stay here, you don't need _more_ material surely," Fukurou said, hands on hips as she scolded the man.

"At least introduce me," he begged politely.

"Tamura Tenten, this man is Otsuka Jiraiya. He's a sanin, and once upon a time he was the most wretched student of our great Hokage, who is about to throw a fit from the way I've been dragging his old genin team back to the village by the way. These days he is recognised as a great author by the general masses, but more importantly he is well versed in seals of nearly all varieties. I was just recently able to drag him back to give Naruto-chan lessons on his late family, and aid Neji-kun in his quest to be free of a certain constraint to his potential," Fukurou explained to Tenten, distracting the girl from her blushing. "Don't let him within a metre of you if you can help it," she added seriously.

"Oh, Fukurou-hime you do me a disservice!" Jiraiya protested, slapping his hand to his chest as though stuck to the heart.

"Yeah yeah, sure I do, oh super-pervert toad-master," Fukurou said. "You have another student to tend to," she instructed mercilessly. "And you two," she added turning to Neji and Tenten once more, "go for a nice walk down the street where all of Konoha are your chaperones."

Tenten turned tomato-red in an instant, and Neji's cheekbones and ears tinted a very rosy pink. The tint deepened when he grabbed Tenten's hand and muttered a "hai, senpai," before dragging the girl out of the embarrassing situation, for her own good as well as his.

~oOo~

Another month after Hinata and Hanabi had helped Neji remove the very last of the curse jutsu from him – well, Hinata had, and Hanabi had watched closely, so that she could help the various members of the branch family while Hinata was busy with missions and training, though Hinata always joined in the effort in the evenings when she returned – Fukurou had an announcement for her team.

"You're ready!" she told them, smiling broadly.

"For what Fukurou-sensei?" Sakura asked as she finished sealing a cut Hinata had made to Shikamaru's arm in their spar.

"How do you feel about going on a C-ranked mission?" she asked, her smile becoming a grin as her genin all dropped their jaws and their eyes lit up.

"What will we be doing sensei?" Sakura asked at last. "Delivery? Escort? Retrieval?"  
"Retrieval is high C-rank, you're only beginning your C-ranks," Fukurou said. "Reasons this might be, Shikamaru-kun?"

"Retrieval often involves stealing some things _back_ from people, so we would have enemy nin chasing us or fighting us to prevent us from reaching the item we are sent to retrieve," he answered.

"That's right. This is a trade mission, actually. We're taking a scroll to the village hidden in the sands, Sunagakure. They're our allies right now, tentative, but allied nevertheless," Fukurou said, holding up the scroll in question. "I believe it's a recipe of some kind, in exchange for a recipe from Suna."

"Cooking, sensei?" Shikamaru asked now, disbelieving and slightly put out.

Fukurou just smiled, but the genin recognised it as the smile that said she wasn't telling them everything.

"It's a three week journey to Suna on average, and we're travelling both ways with a squad _from_ Suna as soon as we reach the border crossing point between Rivers and Wind, as their climate is vastly different to our own and we aren't used to it. You have the rest of today to pack your bags," she spelled all of their backpacks with the same charm that was on the shopping bags from Diagon Alley as a one-month-of-being-a-team anniversary present, quite some time ago now. "We are meeting at the Konoha West Gate at eight-thirty sharp in the morning."

"Hai Fukurou-sensei!" the genin chorused, returning their broomsticks to the room full of them in Fukurou's house, the room she had made a little sign for saying "broom closet," before they dashed off, excited for their first C-rank mission.

~oOo~

Once the gates had closed behind them, Fukurou allowed the kids to get on their broomsticks. They would fly through the morning, speeding up the journey, and then train on the move in the afternoons, slowing it back down again equally so that they weren't early to their rendezvous point.

"It will take us a week and a half to reach our border with Rivers, the rest of the second week to reach their far border, and then another week to reach Sunagakure itself from the checkpoint, _if_ the winds are favourable, and in the Land of Wind, you can only hope," Fukurou told her team as they had lunch as they flew. It was a tricky operation, but they managed it without falling off, running into anything, or dropping anything.

"Fukurou-sensei, didn't you get to the Land of Waves really fast though? Why don't we travel the way you did then, and make it faster?" Sakura asked.

"No Sakura-chan, we couldn't. That was me in a hurry for a rescue mission. I had a bit of Itachi-chan's hair and could use it as a focus to take me straight to him when I did a certain spell. I don't have any such thing for anybody in Sunagakure, and I'm not in a hurry. We can race back if you like, but to reach Suna safely we need to be exactly on schedule. They expect us at a border at a certain time. To be early shows that we are better than we're letting them know, which they won't take kindly. To be late is an both insult and implies that we are weaker than we have led them to believe, which they won't like much either," Fukurou explained, slipping her emptied bento into her backpack once again.

The genin nodded their understanding.

"Is that why you pull at our hair all the time sensei?" Shikamaru asked when, a few minutes later they landed on a wide tree-branch.

"Brooms away, we're going on foot from here, tree-jumping," she told them, leading by example, "and yes,"she added, ruffling the boy's bushy ponytail, "that's one of the reasons."

The week-and-a-half to the boarder of Fire was an easy journey. The three genin got a crash course in woods craft; pitching camp, building a fire, setting traps and alarms, and recognising which plants were edible and which weren't, though the wild mushrooms were not touched, as despite their nutritional value, the poisonous ones looked very similar to the safe ones. Fukurou gave a quick lesson on how to tell the difference between the most common of the safe mushrooms and it's dangerous look-alike, but still wouldn't cook any that didn't come from the pre-packed rations stored in their backpacks.

The half-week passing through their neighbour, Rivers, was less easy. Though it had no hidden village and the many rivers of the country were bountiful, there were a few bandits on the look out for an easy target. A single grown woman with three kids, only one of them a boy, looked easy enough to a lot of the ruffians, though when the bandits realised that the group was ninjas, they usually backed off, though some ran away screaming, which got the genin laughing.

Team 9 arrived right on time at the checkpoint on Wind's border, and were told that they could meet the team escorting them at dinner that night, then leave in the morning. One of the nin stationed at the border showed them to some rooms they could use for the night, and then led them to the mess hall when the dinner bell rang. He stood peering through the crowd for a moment after Team 9 collected a meal from the servers and gestured for them to follow him.

"These shinobi are the ones assigned to guide you through the sands of Wind to Suna," the nin said and excused himself.

"Pleased to meet you," Fukurou said, smiling at the team of sand nin. "I suppose him leaving us standing here means we should ask you if we can sit with you."

"Knock yourselves out," said the eldest of the three shinobi, a girl with her thick blond hair tied into four bushy bunches. She seemed somewhat tentative though, as though concerned about what would happen if they did. "I'm Temari," she added, putting down her chopsticks so that she could extend her hand to Fukurou.

Fukurou took the hand and smiled as she shook it, sitting down and gesturing for her genin to do likewise. "Fukurou, and these three are my genin; Shikamaru, Hinata and Sakura," she answered still smiling, pointing to each of them as she introduced them.

Temari nodded. "My brothers, Kankuro and Gaara," Temari said, pointing to the boy who had painted his face and a red-head in turn. "We're genin as well, but our fa- our _Kage_ said we didn't need a jounin instructor any more, and will be going to the next chuunin exams."

"They're being held in Konoha this time aren't they?" Fukurou said, making conversation while her genin busily ate and glanced at the people they would be travelling with for the next week.

"Yeah, you get the advantage of being used to the climate this go around," Temari agreed, smiling slightly sourly.

"Ah, but we have such a nice climate," Fukurou said, smiling broadly. "Warm days, cool nights, and just enough rain to make the grass lush for lying around on after training."

Temari chuckled, recognising a friendly tease when she heard one. "And you don't have to worry about the wind blowing sand into _every_ piece of clothing you own, or making your make up gritty, right Kankuro?"

"It's not make up!" the boy growled. "I've told you a thousand times Temari -!"

"War paint, yeah yeah," she cut him off, waving a hand. "I know, I just like to tease you," she added. "But seriously," she continued, returning to Fukurou, "sand in every piece of clothing you've got, and if you let it, the sand will stick to your skin, and build up like a shell. No offence Gaara," she added quickly, turning to the red haired boy, "but you're really the only one who likes that sort of thing at all."

"I don't deliberately have the sand skin, and you know it," the boy rasped, his pale green eyes locking onto Temari briefly.

"Yeah, I know," she said softly, sadly.

Fukurou cocked her head slightly, confused, and took a moment to study the youngest sibling in the squad.

"No Fukurou-sensei," Shikamaru said, smirking. "You're not going to give him a bear-hug and pull his hair. It's bad policy. You spent two weeks telling us all this," the boy said.

"Spoil-sport," she returned, wrapping an arm around him and pulling his hair instead, which got everybody laughing but Gaara, who watched in quiet confusion, having never experienced such a thing himself.

"What does that feel like?" he asked when the laughter died down.

Fukurou blinked. "You've never been hugged like that before?" She was now officially confused, the kid even had 'love' tattooed on his forehead, and he didn't know what hugs felt like?

"Um," Temari started, shifting uncomfortably. "I don't suppose you noticed how much space is left between us and the rest of the shinobi here at the checkpoint?"

Fukurou and her genin nodded.

"They're scared of Gaara," she admitted. "It's not his fault and they should really handle it better, but they don't and as a result... well..."

Fukurou nodded her understanding, though her genin were still confused. It was like with Naruto, only the differences in the child had led to differences in the way they responded to the situation.

"Would you _like_ a hug, Gaara-kun?" she asked gently.

He seemed genuinely surprised, and his eyes widened, reminding Fukurou of a deer's, caught in the headlights of a car back in Britain.

Fukurou got up from where she sat and slowly walked around the table to the boy. Very gently she ran her hand over his red hair – _Even redder than the Weasleys_, she thought to herself – and wrapped her arms around him gently, cradling him against her like a mother would her new born baby.

Whispers started up, buzzing around the mess hall. "This is going to be trouble," "She's touching him!" "She's hugging that demon!"

It was hearing that last one that set her off, but she still had her arms around Gaara, so she gently, gently pressed a cheek to his hair and slowly, slowly removed her arms from around him, gave him a smile and then began to move away.

"Sensei?" Sakura asked, wondering what Fukurou was doing.

"I heard someone call Gaara a demon. I don't stand for people saying things like that," Fukurou answered. "I promise I'll be diplomatic and not do anything to disrupt the peace between Leaf and Sand, but I won't stand for that kind of prejudice."

"Even when it's true?" Gaara asked in his rasping voice, stopping her.

The Konoha shinobi all looked at Gaara in surprise.

"I _am_ a demon, or I've got one in me. Shukaku. That's why they all hate and fear me. Shukaku controls the sands, without consulting me a lot of the time," the boy said, his pale green eyes fixing themselves on Fukurou.

"Sounds like someone else I know," she murmured, sitting back down again beside the child, wrapping her arms around him once more. "Except there was no sand and he was kept in the dark about it, so he really didn't have a clue about why the villagers hated him," she continued, then smirked. "I fixed that though," she added, satisfactorily. "He knows the truth, _and_ the idiots with the prejudices leave him alone."

"You- you're-" Kankuro stuttered, staring at the older woman who had just been told and still held his psychotic little brother.

"Very brave," Temari finished, laying a hand on Kankuro's shoulder. "Thank you," she added.

"That's our Fukurou-sensei," Hinata said, smiling slightly. "She's the best."

"Too much praise, Hinata-chan, will make me big-headed, but thank you. Will you pass me my dinner? When we've all finished, I think we had better retire so that we can be ready to go in the morning," Fukurou said, not moving from where she sat beside Gaara.


	16. Chapter 16

The next morning the Sand Siblings knocked on the doors of the Konoha nin, wanting to get a good start before the heat of the day set in. They were surprised to find all of the genin awake already and in their sensei's room, sitting around her with their legs crossed and their hands resting palm-up on their knees.

"Time to go is it?" Fukurou asked, not opening an eye. "Team 9, grab your bags. Time is short and our friends want us moving."

"Hai Fukurou-sensei," the genin chorused, getting to their feet and moving to pick up already packed bags, standing to attention when they were ready to go.

Fukurou didn't move for a moment more, then let out a long breath before she also stood and collected her bag.

"What was that?" Temari asked as they left the checkpoint behind and headed into the shifting sands of Wind.

"Meditation," Sakura answered. "The better we know our chakra, the better we are able to use it."

"Sensei trains us hard, even if we don't always sweat," Shikamaru added. "She's troublesome."

"Shikamaru-kun, sometimes I think the only reason you breathe in and out constantly is because it would be more troublesome not to," Sakura said, frowning. By now it was a long-standing argument between the two of them.

"Temari-san, what is that you carry on your back?" Hinata asked shyly.

"My weapon," the older girl answered proudly. "The giant fan. I use many wind-based ninjutsu, and with this I can even fly if I want to. It's also solid enough to hurt if I decide to just hit people with it, but mostly I fight from a distance."

Hinata nodded, awed. She hadn't thought of using wind-based jutsu to fly with before. She bet it was awesome, but being a jutsu it would use chakra, so she'd stick with the broomstick Fukurou-sensei had given her, at least for now.

"You're being very free with your words," Kankuro growled at his older sister.

"We're _allied_ with Leaf," Temari answered sharply. "In case you didn't get the memo. There is no reason to be secretive. Besides, I like bragging about being able to fly on my fan."

"With Chiyo as the Kazekage's advisor," Gaara rasped, "that alliance will always be shaky. I'm not sure if I like Chiyo."

"Don't kill her," Temari advised tiredly. "She's a puppet _master_; she's useful, even if she is paranoid and doesn't trust the other hidden villages much."

"I don't know why you became a shinobi if you like peace so much Temari," Kankuro grumbled.

With a regulation 'pissed off older sister' face, Temari hit Kankuro on the head between the ears of his hat: a regulation 'pissed off older sister' thump with the soft part of her fist and a lot of power.

"Shut up Kankuro," she advised.

~oOo~

They stopped for lunch, and rested under a shelter Gaara made from sand until the heat of the day was beginning to ease, then started back up again.

"Sakura-chan, since we're only walking, I want you to practice channelling your chakra as you walk – different strands into different fingers. I know you've got your first three. See if you can't find your fourth as well, but do it carefully," Fukurou whispered to the pinkette, a hand on her shoulder.

Sakura nodded and Fukurou moved from her side to the ear of her next genin.

"Hinata-chan, I'm going to add to your weights, okay?"

Hinata nodded as well, though continued walking as Fukurou surreptitiously pulled out her wand and tapped them, then whispered the spell to make each weight two-hundred and fifty grams heavier. It wasn't much, but they were on sand, so she didn't want it to be.

Shikamaru she set to catching the shadows of Hinata, Temari and Kankuro, but to also make sure they didn't notice that he did it or when he released them – not Sakura, as she had to concentrate on her chakra, not Gaara for reasons obvious after the previous evening, and not Fukurou, as she had just told him to do it and _would_ notice.

~oOo~

The Konoha team were strange, as far as Kankuro was concerned, and he didn't see why he had to play babysitter to them, making sure they didn't die in the desert, but there was something about their sensei that just left him really confused. Mostly it was the way she had treated Gaara, particularly _after_ she had found out about the insane raccoon, but there was also how she treated her team, and talked with Temari, and visibly restrained herself from invading _his_ personal space, like she knew it wouldn't be welcomed or something.

Of course, that didn't even begin to cover her other oddities. That meditating thing she did, every morning, Gaara said, she got up three hours before dawn and just sat. She'd check that her genin were sleeping, give him a smile and maybe a hug, and then she just _sat_, eyes closed and breathing measured, sometimes with different expressions crossing her otherwise peaceful face.

Bunkered down out of the heat, another night and day to go before they reached Suna, Kankuro watched as Gaara asked to join Fukurou in her meditation, something she had taken to doing in the rest stops, even though her genin used the time to catch up on sleep, as they usually kept walking for a while after it got dark.

He wasn't the only one watching either. Temari, he knew, was curious about this strange sitting still thing that the Leaf nin did every day.

Fukurou smiled up at the boy and patted the sand near her, welcoming him, then used a different voice to the one she normally did as she told him about the meditation process as she practised and taught it. Kankuro wasn't sure how she managed to make her voice sound like water running freely and gently over smooth stones, but she did, and it was relaxing to listen to. So relaxing that he found himself closing his own eyes and listening to her instructions as well. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Temari doing the same.

Fukurou was the one, that day, who noticed first that the temperature was beginning to drop and gently coaxed the sand siblings out of their meditative trances and gave her genin the nudge to wake up.

"Fukurou-san," Gaara said as they walked, his voice ever-so-slightly less rasping than it usually was. "Thank you." There was genuine gratitude in his tone.

"My pleasure," she answered, her expression soft and tone utterly genuine.

That night, Gaara meditated, rather than simply sitting up all night unable to sleep – not that he could sleep anyway, but the meditation gave him some kind of rest, and when in the morning he initiated a moment of non-violent contact with Fukurou, Temari nearly burst with happiness, while Kankuro just about fell over in relief.

Throughout the last day of the journey to Suna, the Konoha genin were aware of small changes in the way Temari was acting with Gaara, and in the ways he was responding. She'd hand him something, rather than toss it to him or put it down on the ground and push it towards him, and he would hold her hand gently for a moment before releasing it, where he had just silently accepted that she was afraid to come too near him previously. Kankuro as well. He walked a bit closer to Gaara, not much, but it was still there.

The Kazekage didn't seem to notice any difference though when the Konoha nin were presented to him upon their arrival, which Temari was both grateful for and surprised by. He may not be particularly fond of his children, and he certainly was a lousy dad, but he _did_ keep very close tabs on them, and was always aware of even small changes in their behaviour. Once they had left his presence to deliver the scroll to the hospital and collect the one being traded, Gaara's brow furrowed too, which was another unusual thing. He didn't normally express the normal emotions that most people did, and certainly not in usual ways, but _this_ new development was a good thing.

"The Kazekage was different," he said, as Fukurou gave the scroll to Sakura to store in her backpack.

"You noticed something odd too,"Kankuro said quietly, nodding his head.

Temari nodded as well, agreeing with her brothers, a frown on her face.

"No, I mean... whoever that was... isn't the man who was Kazekage when we left Suna two weeks ago," Gaara corrected. "He smelt wrong, like cold death and..." he seemed unable to find the right words.

"And distant whispering," Fukurou supplied, surprising the sand siblings. "He reminded me of how a couple of friends described an old team mate, before he was found conducting forbidden practices and ran from Konohagakure," the woman shivered, despite the desert's heat.

"Wait wait wait," Temari said, holding up her hands. "You're saying that _wasn't_ our bastard father the Kazekage we just saw? It was some crazy run-away bastard from Leaf?"

"What forbidden practices?"

"Who are you talking about Fukurou-sensei?"

"How does someone _smell_ like a _sound_?"

Fukurou waved her arms for her genin to calm down, and addressed Temari's demands first.

"I'm just speculating. I have never had the misfortune to meet Orochimaru, unless I did just then, which despite appearances _is_ possible. Henge aren't hard after all," she pointed out, then started addressing her team's questions. "Orochimaru was hunted out of Konoha for experimenting on other Leaf nin, trying to find immortality. He was on a team under Hokage-sama when he was a genin, with Jiraiya-san and Tsunade-hime. As for smelling like a sound..." she sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "That is something that you should just be glad you do not yet have the experience to know," she concluded, recalling the time in Hogwarts when she had been out of commission because of the Basilisk and shuddered.

Kankuro looked at Fukurou with a little more respect at that moment, but knew that there were times when there was nothing to be done about a situation.

"We can show you around Suna if you like, or we can get started straight away back to the border," he said, gesturing to the street before them, changing the subject.

"It's just past the heat of the day, we wouldn't travel far before we had to make camp, and I'm sure there are places you want to show off in your village," Fukurou said, smiling as the boy finally seemed to be starting to warm up to her, and particularly glad he had made the offer, as well as provided a way out of the disturbing topic.

Kankuro nodded, grinning, an expression mirrored on Temari's face and shadowed on Gaara's. The painted boy held out an arm to Hinata for her to take, which she did, blushingly. Temari smirked and nudged Gaara gently to do the same for Sakura, who also blushed to take his arm, but didn't flinch even the tiniest bit at the motion.

"Shikamaru-kun," Fukurou said, a warning in her tone that was entirely teasing. "Don't think I'm going to be the one taking Temari-san's arm, charming as she is."

"Troublesome," he grumbled clearly, but smiled a little as he allowed himself to be paired up with Temari for the afternoon.

Fukurou chuckled at how cute they all were like that, and called up a bunshin to take her arm so that she wouldn't feel as left out, though she resisted putting a henge on the bunshin so that it would look like Kakashi. No need to encourage teasing from her students after all.

~oOo~

"I'm surprised Sensei hasn't tried to steal your hat yet," Hinata said to Kankuro as they settled down for the heat of the day to pass, the second day of the return trip to the border.

"Why would she?" Kankuro asked, confused.

"Her favourite thing to do is pull our hair," Shikamaru answered bluntly as he lay down to get a little extra sleep in.

"I bet she's been itching for a chance to pull yours since she saw the way you keep it all covered," Sakura giggled, curling her hands under her head to act as a pillow.

"I let her pull mine last night," Gaara said, sitting down to meditate.

"She pulled mine this morning," Temari joined in, also intent on meditation.

"She can hear you," Fukurou added pointedly, one eye open and looking over all their faces before closing it again and sinking once again into her meditation.

Kankuro chuckled, but did not remove his hat as he allowed himself to fall into the pattern of meditation he had accidentally picked up as well. It was pretty good stuff, he had quickly realised, though particularly for Gaara, who had actually started smiling like a normal person since he started.

~oOo~

"When you come to Konohagakure for the chuunin exams, I want you to stay with me," Fukurou said as they farewelled at the Wind-Rivers border. "You will, won't you?"

The sand siblings all smiled and nodded. Gaara was the first of them who moved to hug her goodbye, then Temari. When Kankuro shuffled over as well, he felt a tug on his hair, though his hat was still in place when he reached up to feel his head.

"Gotcha!" Fukurou chuckled when he stepped back, shock written all over his painted face. "You didn't think you could get away with me _not_ tugging your hair, did you?"

Kankuro and all the other genin laughed at that, and with a last wave, they parted ways.

~oOo~

"So now you've got a little collection from Sunagakure, don't you Fukurou-sensei?" Shikamaru asked as Team 9 sped through the air above the slightly sparse canopies of Rivers on their broomsticks.

"A little collection of precious people, and a way to get to them quickly if I ever need to," Fukurou answered the strategist and not-so-lazy-any-more genius. "Yes, I do."

"I saw Shikamaru-kun playing with Temari-san's hair while we were in Sunagakure," Hinata said, giggling. "I think he wants you to teach him that trick you told us about."

Shikamaru's face turned red and he sped up a little as the girls all laughed.

After that, there would be no more D-ranked missions, just C-ranked, though unfortunately no more that would lead them to Suna.


	17. Chapter 17

When Fukurou walked through the gates of the Uchiha complex for the first time in almost six weeks, she was both surprised and pleased to be tackled by not one or two but by four excited young men. Naturo and Sasuke both insisted that they had been very good at keeping up their training and meditation while she had been away and were much stronger now, Haku wanted to tell her how his sword work had been improving and Itachi – the biggest surprise of all, as he generally claimed to have outgrown such displays now that he was going on sixteen – was babbling in her ear about having to deal with Hyuuga Hyashi wanting to discuss her training regime in her absence, and looking more than a little pissed about something.

Fukurou laughed at their welcome and gave appropriate responses to each of them. She was sure that Naruto and Sasuke were getting much stronger and would continue to do so, would be delighted to watch Haku show off how he had improved while she had been away, and apologised to Itachi for leaving him in a position to have to deal with Hyuuga-sama.

"I offered to see him, as the oldest Uchiha in residence," Zabuza said, a smirk in his voice. "He didn't want to acknowledge me though, so I returned the favour. Welcome home Fukurou-san," he said, stretching out an arm to give her a welcome back hug of his own.

Fukurou disentangled herself and hugged the taller man.

"Thank you Zabuza-san, I hope you made him mad," she answered, giving a gentle squeeze.

"He didn't want to talk to me or Shizune about you either," Tsunade said, smiling as she emerged from the room that had been given over to be her study. "Probably thought we'd be biased in your favour because we're all women."

Fukurou bent over, in stitches from holding in her laugher up to this point. "I sometimes think that if I kicked him hard enough in the rear he'd choke on the kunai currently lodged there," she admitted with a grin. "I shall continue with drastic measures until I either get through to that man, or give him a heart attack."

Tsunade nodded her approval and folded Fukurou into a welcome back hug of her own.

"I have important information that I need to consult you, Jiraiya-san and the Hokage about," she whispered to Tsunade before easing the embrace.

"I'll get toad-boy," Tsunade grunted. "Half an hour in the old guy's office?"

Fukurou nodded.

~oOo~

"Fukurou-san, sometimes I think that if I wasn't grey-haired already you would be endeavouring to make me so. As things are, you are making me bald faster," Sarutobi said when the two sanin and the jounin entered his office. "What is it now?"

"I believe I have made a sighting of Orochimaru, Hokage-sama," Fukurou answered. "I apologise for your hair."

"Where?" he demanded. "And are you certain?"

"I have never met Orochimaru, Hokage-sama, so I was only able to recognise what Jiraiya-san and Tsunade-hime described to me of him, so I cannot be certain, though I am very confident," Fukurou answered, "that he is currently masquerading as the Kazekage of Sunagakure."

"This is a serious accusation," the Hokage said. "You had never met the Kazekage before this mission, how can you be certain that it was not the man himself, reminding you of Orochimaru's description?"

"The team that escorted Team 9 through the Land of Wind was comprised of the three children of the Kazekage, they all recognised something off about him, and the youngest declared that the man we were led to was not the Kazekage their father, though he looked exactly like him," Fukurou reported.

"We will be able to confirm this when he comes in two months time to view the final round of the chuunin examinations, he has already been invited and accepted," Sarutobi stated grimly, folding his hands and fixing his gaze on the three who stood before him. "Get ready for the possible worst-case scenario, this could be trouble. I'll notify the ANBU to be on their guards as well, but this must be handled delicately. We do _not_ want to cause an incident."

They nodded and left.

~oOo~

While the idea of training her genin in magic was one that appealed to Uchiha Fukurou, flying on broomsticks completely aside, she knew it wasn't really the best of ideas just now. Yes, all three of them _did_ have a small spark of the stuff, frankly everyone had a spark of the stuff, even the civilians back in the UK who hadn't the faintest idea about magic being anything more than the stuff of the fantasy section in their bookshops. Yes, she had taught Kurenai how to do a couple of tricks with the wand she had bought in Diagon Alley, and the woman had cultivated her slightly-larger-than-muggle-level spark so that it was now a constant little candle to anybody who knew how to look for it. Yes, she had a natural furnace of the power inside of her, and yes she was bloody glad so very few ninja knew how to detect it, let alone recognise it, or she would be in big trouble.

Right now though, with the chuunin exams approaching and a few tricks that she only knew how to do magically looking really useful right now, Fukurou was chewing her lip.

Releasing a sigh, she stood and pulled out the little booklet that she kept her focuses in. Finding Remus Lupin's, the Konoha kunoichi prepared for a not very good initial reaction, but felt that regardless of personal preference, this needed to be done. Any further magic lessons could and would wait until morning, at the earliest.

~oOo~

"Is Mr Lupin in residence please?" a young girl with black eyes and hair asked the woman with florid pink hair who had answered the door.

"By Merlin," the woman breathed, eyes wide as she stared at the girl. "Remus! Remus come quickly!" she called into the house.

"What is it Nymphadora? Is it Harry?" the voice of a man answered, footsteps moving quickly through the house, for a civilian anyway.

"No, it's..." the woman, Nymphadora stammered, her eyes still wide as she looked from Remus to the girl at their door.

"Merlin," the man, Remus Lupin, said, shock clear on his face as it had been on the face of Tonks.

The girl, whose face was so like that of a girl dead for recently more than a year, smiled gently in the way she had done but rarely in the time Lupin had known Hermione Granger.

"I was wondering if I could get a lesson on map making, Mr Moony," the strange but familiar girl asked, holding up an almost excessively large roll of parchment.

"Come in," Remus said, still in shock, but polite. "Nymphadora, would you be able to fetch me down the box from the attic that has 'Marauders' written on the lid please?"

"Of course Remus," Tonks answered, not protesting the use of her name for once, and disappearing up the stairs of the house.

"Might I ask your name, young lady? And how you come to know of me and my... history?" Remus asked as he guided the girl into his dining room and moving the vase of flowers off the table.

"My name translates to Owl, which you are free to call me Mr Moony," the girl said. "How I know of you?" Owl asked rhetorically, "Let's just say, I am an avid reader, and enjoy finding strange artefacts."

Tonks returned to the dining room, the box in her arms.

"Miss Owl," Remus said, brow furrowing. "I need some assurance that you haven't sought me out for any purpose related to dark wizardry, or I shall not only refrain from helping you, I shall report you to the Ministry of Magic."

"Would anybody related to Hermione Granger be up to dark magic? I merely need your help with this map," Owl promised. "The location is large, and our threat is real, but we have no way to detect when someone is not who they are pretending to be. That is why I need your help, Mr Moony, last of the map makers."

Remus accepted this with a deep sigh. The resemblance was explained, her motives assured. He relaxed and prepared to help this girl, Owl.

~oOo~

Her heart healed, just a bit, as she farewelled Remus and Tonks after all the help they had given her on her map. Here was a little closure for herself and some more of the friends that she had made during her time here when she had been Hermione Granger.

"Your skills in cartography are most impressive, Miss Owl," Remus said as they stood in his doorway. "Though I have no idea where that was or what those words were you chose to activate and deactivate the map with. It was another language, wasn't it?"

"Yes, the language of my home, of the lands in this map. I suppose a rough translation of the words would be, uh, 'Fire light my path', and 'The shadows invade'," Owl said. "Thank you very much again for your help, Mr Moony. I apologise for disturbing you."

Remus and Tonks shook their heads. "It was our pleasure to have you," Tonks answered. "Perhaps you could visit again, socially."

"And it was good to be able to put all those things I did in my youth to some proper use," Lupin added, nodding in agreement with the now purple-haired woman at his side.

Owl bowed, smiled and popped out of existence.

"Oh Remus," Tonks said, tears at the corners of her eyes. "She looked so much like Hermione."

Lupin just wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly as he closed the door and led her back into the house.

~oOo~

Fukurou sighed as she hung the map on the wall, currently disguised as a carefully brushed poetry scroll, rather than a mere piece of blank parchment, which would be much harder to explain. The thick brush strokes read "With light of the Moon, The Owl watches the Shadows, Mindful of their paths." It was a subtle reference, or not so subtle perhaps, of what the paper was actually capable of, without stating so explicitly and giving the map away. With guidance from Remus 'Moony' Lupin, Fukurou was able to watch the all of the people, and even animals and trees, that lived and moved throughout the Land of Fire. She had wanted to add Sunagakure as well, and the Land of Wind, but she didn't know it well enough to map it.

Unlike the original Marauder's Map of Hogwarts, this map would not require the touch of a wand with the words, but rather the touch of a Konoha headband over the stylised leaf that she had carefully drawn in the corner of the paper with the words she had chosen. After that, areas of Fire could be viewed in greater detail by circling them with the finger, and to return the map at large needed only to be tapped with the Leaf headband again. If she wanted to find someone in particular on the map, she had to touch her whole palm and her headband to the map and state their names. This would become a very useful thing very shortly, she was certain.

"You're cheating on me with a poet?" a voice asked from the door, causing Fukurou to turn sharply in surprise. She had been too consumed with her task to notice his presence.

Fukurou smiled at Kakashi. "Never," she answered. "I went to see one of the men who taught me for a while on my Hogwarts mission," Fukurou explained. "I needed his expertise for a special project."

"You couldn't write a poem by yourself? Or ask me instead?" Kakashi asked, stepping further into the dark room. "Or even tell me that you weren't going to show up for our date that was supposed to be five hours ago? Being stood up isn't a good feeling, love."

"I'm sorry Kakashi, I was so lost in thought when I left that I completely forgot about it," Fukurou said, sliding her arms around his waist and resting her head against his chest. "Will you forgive me if I show you what I spent the last _seven_ hours doing?"

"I'll think about it," he answered, appeased that at least she had actually gone to wherever this was well before their date, and just gotten caught up.

Fukurou shook her head with a smile and kissed his masked lips briefly before moving back to the scroll on her wall and activating it, zooming in on Konoha, then circling her finger around the Hokage building and getting a spread out map of each of the floors, side by side.

Kakashi stepped closer to examine the map, with the little circles moving around on it, followed by name tags and occasionally with speech bubbles hovering over them. Narrowing his uncovered eye at two dots that were very close together in a small room, names he knew attached to them, and little speech bubbles reading various filthy words at various intervals. If this thing was to be believed, then it had just confirmed a few things for him that he'd rather have left in the realms of speculation.

"The shadows invade," Fukurou said, tapping it with her headband once. The maps dissolved, replaced once again with the poem. "Do you forgive me now?" she asked hopefully.

Kakashi, banishing thoughts of learning things about people he'd just as soon have not known, turned to Fukurou again and slipped his arms around her waist as she had done to him earlier.

"Alright," he said, "but you owe me a date."

"It's a bit late now," Fukurou said, smiling. "How about I just set up the futon for you in my room again, and you can stay the night, then we can do something tomorrow?"

Kakashi smiled behind his mask and lowered his head, rubbing his covered nose affectionately against her own petite one.

"That sounds really great," he whispered.

~oOo~

The Hokage sent out a notification to all jounin instructors with genin teams to report to the Hokage Building.

Fukurou gave her team a last look over – they were meditating on the water – before leaving on the summons.

Kakashi ordered his to produce a Kage Bunshin and pair off – _not with themselves_ – and spar until he returned.

Kurenai made her own Kage Bunshin to keep the boys in line while she was gone, she didn't want them getting too enthusiastic with their training and end up hurting anything, any more than she wanted them to slack off.

Gai ordered one hundred laps around the training ground and left once he'd given them his 'nice guy' pose.

Other jounin gave their teams a break or ordered training, and likewise all moved to the Hokage building. The time had come once more.

"The chuunin exams," the Sandaime said in a clear voice. "The chuunin exams are upon us once more, and this time it is Konohagakure who will be hosting. Those who would nominate their teams to take the examination please step forward and name them."

From Konohagakure, seventeen teams were nominated to take the chuunin examinations, among them was a team that had only been together for only two years, and three that had been brought into existence just over a year ago.

Maito Gai advised the jounins leading the three rookie teams to reconsider, suggesting that they take more time to prepare their genin for the ordeal, as he had with his own team.

There was also word of how many teams were coming from Suna, Iwa, Kiri, Komo, Ame, Kusa, Taki, and Oto. Examinations were places to display power and gain recognition after all, not just a chance to advance the individual. There would be a total of sixteen foreign teams for this exam, though Suna, Kiri, Kusa and Oto were sending only one team each.

~oOo~

Umino Iruka was invited to a private dinner in the Uchiha compound that night. Just him, Kakashi, Kurenai and Fukurou, eating together in the room Fukurou normally used when other clan heads wanted to meet formally with her – which generally meant it only got used with Hyashi these days. The rest of the family and house guests were having dinner as usual in the dining room, laughing and talking and enjoying their meal all together, sharing stories about what had happened to them that day.

In this room, tense silence reigned. The jounin were waiting for the chuunin, who had taught their genin when they were in the Academy, to explode at them. Oh yes, they knew it was coming. It was in the way he gripped his chopsticks.

At last, Iruka set them down and took a deep breath.

"What were you all thinking!" he demanded. The explosion had finally begun. "They're barely genin for a year and already you put them in the chuunin exams? How can they possibly be ready for that so soon? I hope you're all prepared to have it on your consciences if they all die out there!"

"So you believe that what you taught them in the Academy, and what we have taught them since, is not good enough to keep them alive through a little test, Iruka-san?" Fukurou asked quickly while the man had paused to draw his breath.

"This isn't just some little test!" the man insisted, nearly frantic. "This is them competing with genin who have more experience than them, and will be forced to fight them eventually! How can you be so confident that one year is enough to prepare them?"

"Because we have spent that year with them, and watched them grow," Kurenai said, trying to sooth the furiously distraught man.

"And it's likely that they'll think like a nine-man cell rather than three separate three-man cells, so they'll have a lot of support against any potential risk," Kakashi added. "We have been making our teams train together as well sometimes."

Iruka still refused to calm down for some time, and was giving all three of them a decidedly cold shoulder when he left.


	18. Chapter 18

Sakura's extra tutelage with Tsunade and Shizune had meant that training once again took place on training ground 9, rather than in the Uchiha compound. This suited Hinata and Shikamaru's training as well, as they had now amassed a good range of different ninjutsu and perfected a few of their family techniques, but needed to try them and their few magic tricks – wandless, but the most useful in the upcoming situations, despite their difficulty – with a greater range. The added bonus for Fukurou was that, in exchange for housing, paying the debt collectors when they showed up, and putting up with a pet pig, Tsunade and Shizune were willing to watch the genin in the instance that she was suddenly called away, as well as cook the occasional meal.

Right now, Fukurou was taking advantage of the former, letting Hinata and Shikamaru learn more about poisons, senbon, and Shizune's special techniques, and Sakura get the hang of turning boulders into rubble under Tsunade's instruction, while she answered a summons delivered by a chuunin for her to come to the Hokage Building.

"Fukurou-san, the teams from the other hidden villages have begun arriving," the Hokage informed her as she stood in his office. "In fact, one team arrived today. A chuunin was about to show them to rooms in the visitors centre when they said that they would not be needing them. Apparently a jounin from our village had met them previously and -"

Fukurou smiled as Sarutobi went on. "So the sand siblings have arrived, Hokage-sama?" she asked, interrupting him. "I've already got rooms ready for them, it's no trouble."

The Hokage frowned. "Not for you, but as you said when you returned from Suna, their Kage may be Orochimaru in disguise. This poses a problem for the village if these genin cannot be watched by our ANBU, or if their Kage, or anybody else's, asks to know why they are not being housed in the visitors building like the other visiting teams."

"It would be a sad day indeed when the Uchiha cannot watch over three genin in their own compound. You can tell whoever asks that a clan head felt like being hospitable, and a visiting team was picked at random from your hat," Fukurou suggested with a smile, heading for the door. "Or you can say that you thought it might be nice for the Suna boy who is cursed with housing the demon Shukaku should meet his local counterpart, and of course his team would go with him," she threw over her shoulder, facing the door but not opening it yet.

Sarutobi sighed. "Turn left, they're in the first room on your right."

"Thank you Hokage-sama," Fukurou said, giving him a smile before she disappeared.

"She really is an S-ranked pain in my rear," the old man mumbled to himself, though he was also smiling slightly.

~oOo~

Fukurou stuck her head through the door, and returned the smiles sent to her by the sand siblings, sending a cheeky wink at the chuunin who had been waiting with them for the 'mess' to get sorted out.

"I hear you've been giving your designated guide a hard time," Fukurou said, stepping into the room and holding a hand out to welcome the nearest of them into a welcoming hug.

"Of course we have," Temari answered, smiling broadly as Gaara stepped into the woman's embrace. "You offered us to stay with you, and that's what we'd like to do."

Kankuro approached next, but hung back at the last second, eyeing Fukurou wearily.

"No hair-pulling," he warned, causing his sister to laugh, Gaara to chuckle – true improvement, as this one was genuinely amused, rather than psychotic – and Fukurou to smirk.

"I promise, no hair-pulling," she agreed.

Kankuro still approached with trepidation, but smiled all the same as he stepped back from the hug and allowed Temari to take his place.

"It's good to see you again," she told the older woman. "But where's your team?"

"She means 'where's Shikamaru-kun'," Kankuro said, imitating Temari's voice poorly and smirking broadly. "Though we were hoping they'd come to welcome us as well."

"They're training," Fukurou answered. "They've got stiff competition in the chuunin exams this year."

"Hah! Pay up Kankuro, I _told_ you they'd be taking the chuunin exams!" Temari said, holding out her hand for Kankuro to pay up.

Fukurou chuckled and led them out of the room, to the chuunin's relief, and pointed out things as she led them through the village to her family estate.

"And this," she said, gesturing to the gate, "is the Uchiha clan estate. Normally my team do their training here, but today they're out at training ground 9, practising more destructive moves and things with longer ranges than I really want or can fit here."

"Or feel like paying to repair, Fukurou-san?" asked a voice from the nearby porch.

"Ah, yes Haku-san, this is true. Haku-san, these are the guests I asked you to make rooms for; Temari-san, Kankuro-san and Gaara-kun from Sunagakure," Fukurou said, smiling.

"Welcome," Haku said, bowing. "I am Uchiha Haku, previously an orphaned and wandering nin from the Land of Water," Haku said, a smile on his face. "Please follow me to the rooms I have prepared for you, and I shall introduce you to Zabuza-san, who raised me before Fukurou-san met us and was so generous as to adopt us both into her clan and village."

"Go on, I need to check on my team, and then I'll make arrangements for a dinner out at a nice restaurant," Fukurou urged them.

The sand siblings nodded and followed the boy, who quickly clarified his gender when Kankuro slipped an arm around his waist. Kankuro blinked once and asked "So?"

Haku blushed, but couldn't seem to find an answer to that, and his siblings weren't laughing like it was a joke. The boy swallowed in nervousness. He would have to ask Zabuza-san or Fukurou-san about this sort of thing. They were sure to know what to do when a boy behaved like this _after_ they had been told he wasn't a girl.

~oOo~

Naruto and Sasuke were leaning on each other for support, clutching at stitches in their sides from laughing so hard when they saw Haku, blushing at a boy wearing make up who had an arm around his waist.

"Have you told him you're a guy, Haku?" Naruto asked, panting as he tried to calm his laughter, and failed gleefully as he started up once again.

"_Yes_," he answered emphatically, blush deepening.

Zabuza gently hit the boys on their heads, calming their laughter at last. "Introduce yourselves to Fukurou-san's guests," he ordered.

"I'm Naruto, and I'm gonna be the Hokage one day!" The blond flashed a grin and a 'victory' sign.

"Sasuke," he thought a moment. "When not with my team, I'm this idiot's keeper," he added, jerking his thumb at Naruto, smirking.

"Hey you bastard!"

"Love you too."

Naruto blushed worse than Haku.

"I'm glad to hear it," Fukurou announced from behind the boys, startling them. "Now that you two are together you can spend a little time perhaps helping Itachi-chan find someone to fall in love with."

"Fukurou-san!"

"Fuu-nee-san?"

"Actually, I think he might have a crush on Mitarashi Anko," Zabuza said. "I saw them having dango together yesterday. He kept looking at her, and letting her steal his dango."

"Good to know," Fukurou said, smirking. "Naruto-chan, Sasuke-chan, these people are genin like you, and have come from Suna to take part in the exams. That's Kankuro-san with his arm around Haku, his older sister Temari-san, and younger brother Gaara-san," Fukurou said, conducting the introductions with a smile.

"Nice to meet you," her boys said, bowing politely.

"You can get to know them when we go out for dinner tonight," Fukurou said, forestalling any questions. "Right now I want to know why you aren't trading blows and building your chakra reserves."

"Eheh," Sasuke gulped, mouth twitching into a hopeful but weak smile before he dashed out of the room, dragging Naruto behind him, who had simply frozen at Fukurou's words.

"We will be going to the Akimichi family's barbecue restaurant for dinner tonight," Fukurou told the ex-mist and the sand-nin. "Teams 7, 8, 9 and half of Team 2 will be there as well, though Tsunade, Shizune and Jiraiya have all said they will be going out with Ibiki-sensei tonight, drinking," she curled her lip in distaste. She had forced herself to drink the popular butterbeers in Hogsmede – it was part of her cover – but she didn't like the stuff, or indeed anything with alcohol in it.

"I think I might go with them," Zabuza said. "Haku, however, will be joining you, and if I see Itachi-san and Anko-san, I shall keep an eye on them for you."

"Thank you very much Zabuza-san," Fukurou said, wrapping an arm around him as high up as she could reach without visibly stretching, which was his chest. She wasn't short, but Zabuza was quite tall.

Tsunade and Shizune arrived home then, and introductions were conducted once again before the two women went to collect their things and leave for the village hot-spring spa, promising to send Jiraiya back if they found him doing more of his 'research'. There were baths on the Uchiha estate, but it wasn't the same, even if the pervert liked to hang around the women's bathhouse.

Jiraiya arrived back at the Uchiha estate, badly beaten, shortly after. He barely bothered with a greeting before limping directly to his room.

~oOo~

Kakashi was glad when, upon arriving at the restaurant, the half of Team 2 that Fukurou had mentioned wasn't the green half, but rather Neji and Tenten, who were quiet, sensible and working their way up to being a solid couple.

"Lee-kun wanted to train more tonight, since the exams start tomorrow," Tenten said.

"And where Lee-san goes," Neji added, rolling his white eyes, "Gai-sensei will follow so that he may watch him and cry proudly."

"He's sweet," Sakura said, the barest hint of reproach in her voice. "He goes too far, but he really is sweet."

Shino probably stared at the pink-haired girl from behind his sunglasses, if the rest of the minimal expression on his face was anything to go by. Kiba and Sasuke caught it. Sasuke smirked and murmured something to the boy, while Kiba asked the question he knew Shino wasn't going to verbalise.  
"You don't have a... a _crush_ on either of them do you?"

"No," Sakura answered flatly. "Definitely not. Much too loud for my tastes, but they're still sweet."

"They always carry for us," Hinata clarified with a giggle as they all headed in. "When Sakura-chan or I are doing grocery shopping for our families, they help us carry it back home."

Kiba and Shino smiled at that, though Kiba's was more obvious as it wasn't hidden behind a large collar.

"Well, next time you go shopping, you can call for one of us big strapping lads from Team 8, we'll carry for you, and we won't be embarrassingly green and loud," Kiba said, clapping an arm around Shino's shoulders and jabbing a thumb at his own chest.

"But just one of those two. I carry enough for Fuu-nee-san," Sasuke added, clarifying that only Shino and Kiba were to be called on.

That got everybody laughing as they took their seats with Chouji and Ino, who had gotten there early and were talking about the different uses of herbs in cooking.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru said quietly as he sat down at the table. "My best friend and the most troublesome girl in the village. I'm going to have to learn how to like her if it keeps up," he grumbled, though he was smiling as well, happy for Chouji to be getting such attention from one of the prettiest girls who had been in their class.

Temari slipped into the seat next to him.

"Is there anything you don't think of as troublesome?" she asked. "You can't just be happy for your friend?"

Shikamaru smirked. "I'm very happy for Chouji," he answered, "But I still believe that relationships are troublesome."

"Never mind that his dream is to make jounin, get married, and have two kids," Fukurou whispered into Temari's ear from the girl's other side, smirking. Louder, she said "Shikamaru-kun is just prejudiced because his mother nags him and his father a lot because they like to do things slowly."

"Kaa-san is a civilian," Shikamaru said, sighing and resting his chin in his hand. "Sometimes that's a good thing, most of the time it's just even more troublesome."

"I've had enough talk of parents," Kakashi said at last. "Lets talk about how I should ask Fukurou-san to marry me instead."

"_EH!_" demanded every Konoha genin at the table, while the sand siblings stared at the white-haired man mutely.

"Kakashi-sensei, you want to marry Fukurou-san!" Chouji and Ino demanded, rising from their seats slightly and planting their hands on the table.

Fukurou blushed and hid her eyes behind her hands, groaning in embarrassment even though she was still smiling.

"Hai," Kakashi answered his students, his visible eye curving as he smiled beneath his mask.

"Fukurou-san, why would you want to marry Kakashi-sensei? He's probably got buck-teeth or fish-lips under that mask!" Naruto objected loudly.

Every pair of eyes but Fukurou's turned to Kakashi slowly, suddenly wondering what actually _was_ under that mask.

"I assure you, I have no such disfigurement," Kakashi said stoically, not even shifting in his seat under the stares. "My mask would not sit as smoothly over my face if I did."

"What about the way you're always reading Jiraiya-sama's books?" Ino demanded. "I don't think Fukurou-san should have to put up with such a filthy habit."

Kakashi chuckled. "One day, Ino-chan, you will appreciate good literature just like I do, and when that day comes, I want you to come and visit me and apologise for that slur on my books."

Ino flinched back. "Ew! Never!" she cried vehemently.

"Jiraiya-san is the author of the _Icha Icha_ series," Fukurou explained quietly to Temari when she made a questioning sound, though she didn't remove her face from her hands.

Temari smirked at the information. "I wish I'd known that, I'd have brought my copy for him to sign," she answered, just as quietly, while the grilling of Kakashi continued.

"If Hatake-san is going to be marrying the head of the Uchiha clan," Haku said, still blushing with the way Kankuro's hand was on his knee beneath the table, "then I believe he should have to gain the approval of every member of the clan."

"And how do you suggest I go about that, Haku-kun?" Kakashi asked, humouring the boy as much anything else.

"He's never getting _my_ approval," Naruto said stubbornly, crossing his arms and pouting. "'Cause to get my approval he'd have to prove that he can make Fukurou-san happy, and I don't think he can."

"Naruto-idiot, you're talking about the most chronically smiley kunoichi in the whole of Konohagakure," Sasuke pointed out drily, "and they've got my approval, and Fuu-nee-san is my sister, so I don't see why you should object. They're perfect for each other, even Ibiki-san said so, or is your memory failing you already?"

"Bastard," Naruto growled quietly at the insult. "Fine!" he said, still pouting. "But you're not allowed to make her unhappy _ever_ Kakashi-sensei!"

"Hai, I promise Naruto-kun," Kakashi said happily.

Haku shook his head. "Not good enough for me," he said, smiling. "I want to see how you kiss Fukurou-san before I allow you to marry her."

That drew the attention of everybody who had become bored of the conversation in favour of talking to their neighbours back with a nearly audible snap.

Kakashi rose from his seat, the table silent and every face watching him, following him. Even Akamaru was watching the silver-haired copy-nin as he walked around the table to Fukurou and gently pried her hands away from her face.

"Hello there," he said, smiling beneath his mask.

"Hi," she answered, almost uncharacteristically meek.

"Do you mind having an audience for once?" Kakashi asked.

"Not if you don't," Fukurou answered, the smallest of smiles tugging at the corner of her mouth.

Kakashi pulled down his mask until it hung around his neck, revealing his clear skin, straight nose, slightly-plump lips and the clean-shaven chin he normally hid from everybody's sight. He was still just long enough for Fukurou to smile properly, and then their mouths connected.

The silence of the table shattered. Cat-calls and wolf-whistles breaking out all over. Haku smiled and laughed, calling that they had his permission as well, though when Kankuro tried to nuzzle closer to him, he was distracted from the kiss and blushed deeply. Again.


	19. Chapter 19

"Naruto, remember that everything is a test today. Don't give away information, even to other teams from Konoha. Let them tell you, but there is no need for you to go shouting, alright?" Fukurou told him when he sat down in the morning to meditate with her.

Gaara was already out beside her, which surprised the boy, though he wasn't entirely sure why. Perhaps it was just because he was used to being the first one up after Fukurou-san, since he still got up early to meditate even though she had stopped dragging him out of bed for it.

"Hai Fukurou-san," Naruto answered.

"How has your communication been developing?"

"Eh?" Naruto asked, confused. She had said not to talk about the Kyuubi to anybody, and Gaara was right there, able to hear every word.

"It has improved," Gaara answered, his once raspy voice much smoother than it had been those months ago when he and Fukurou had first met, and she had given him his first genuinely affectionate hug. "Shukaku has calmed lately, and even deigns to hold intelligible conversations about things other than how pretty, or how tasty, he thinks blood is."

"Does he let you rest yet?" Fukurou asked.

"No, I still don't sleep. He would break out if I did, and he is far from sensible. To reach such a point would take more time yet. The meditation is helping."

"Then I am glad for that much. Naruto, has your communication improved since last month?"

"H-hai, Fukurou-san," Naruto answered, closing his eyes now to delve into his own meditation.

"What have you learned?"

"When Kyuubi attacked the village, attack was not in his intent," the blond answered, sifting through his different chakras until he found the one that glowed red hot like fire, and yet had a texture like fur. "Something had been taken from him, he was looking for it."

"Has he told you what he was searching for?" Fukurou doubted it even as she asked. She doubted that the Kyuubi would ever tell Naruto all that much about the reasons behind his violently executed actions.

"No, only that he has been searching for a long time, and can't remember why he was drawn here a second time. I didn't know Kyuubi had attacked the village before, Fukurou-san."

"Hm, it is a history lesson for another time," Fukurou said gently. "Meditate. You have chakras aside from the Kyuubi's," _and we managed to talk sense into Jiraiya-san_, Fukurou added to herself. The trouble that the old man would have caused by deliberately weakening the seal with just the _intent_ to teach Naruto to surpass the Kyuubi's nature. The boy was improving, but not that much yet!

The rest of the Uchiha clan and the sand siblings joined the meditation circle formed in the centre of the Uchiha estate as the dawn broke over the horizon and the rooftops of Konoha.

Zabuza, the last to sit, was the first to stand again as well, as he usually was. Meditating like this didn't suit him, though he recognised its benefits. There was breakfast to be made anyway, and they were going to need enough energy to get them through the day. On the other hand, they might not get past the first test... no, they were too smart to drop out that quickly.

Everybody slowly trickled into the dining room to eat the breakfast that Zabuza had made, and as usual Fukurou was the last to enter. What was unusual was that she was carrying Ibiki-san with her.

"I can't believe you drank that much last night sensei," she was saying. "Sit, I'll make you a hangover cure."

"I normally wouldn't," Ibiki protested weakly, "but Tsunade-hime challenged me to a chugging contest, Jiraiya too. They were both still going when I left..."

"You mean when I carried you home in the barkeeper's wheelbarrow," Shizune said, standing in the door holding a pig.

"I take it you didn't drink, Shizune-san," Fukurou said as she got out a black pot and started dropping worrying looking ingredients into it.

"Can't if I'm going to be left to drag Tsunade-hime and Jiraiya-baka back here by myself as well," she pointed out, sitting down at the breakfast table, glaring slightly at Zabuza and Itachi, who had also been out with them the previous night, but left earlier. "They haven't woken up yet, by the way. When they do, they'll be wanting some of that as well I reckon."

Fukurou just nodded and kept mixing. Eventually she ladled out a cup full of the pepper-up potion and handed it to her pained old sensei, teasing him gently about it as he accepted the drink and downed it.

"Wow," Ibiki said, staring at his drained cup. "Now that's what I call a hangover cure."

Fukurou smiled and took back the cup, washing it up and setting it to dry before sitting down to eat her own breakfast.

"Fuu-chan," Ibiki said as he accepted a bowl of rice and egg from Haku, "did you adopt more people to your clan while I wasn't looking?"

The people around the table laughed gently.

"No Ibiki-sensei," Fukurou scolded teasingly. "See, if I'd adopted them, they'd be wearing Konoha crests, but you will notice that they are in fact wearing the crest of Suna."

"Ah, yes, my apologies. I am normally more astute," Ibiki said, bowing slightly in his seat to the three he knew to be the genin children of the Kazekage.

"You've normally also got your coat and uniform on rather than that monstrosity of a shirt you insist on wearing when you go drinking as well," Fukurou pointed out dryly. "So I'm going to assume that you'll be stopping by your apartment before you get on with the various tasks you have today."

Ibiki looked down and groaned when he realised that yes, he _was_ still wearing the clothes from last night. He quickly shovelled the last of the rice he had been given and excused himself before teleporting out.

"And when he _hasn't_ been drinking, then Ibiki-sensei is just the captain of the torture and interrogation unit of Konoha's special operatives force, a sadist and generally intimidating in every way," Fukurou said with a sigh. "Unless you know him very well."

"Ibiki-san was Fuu-nee-san's sensei when she was a genin," Sasuke told the sand siblings. "Itachi-nii's bedtime stories were all horror stories about Ibiki-san, a bunch of mine were too."

"I thought they were good stories," Fukurou objected.

"Fukurou-nee-san, being told about how Ibiki-san was peeling off someone's skin because it had a curse seal on it, and making his partner watch the process and forcing them to explain the seal's purpose, shouldn't have ever been a bedtime story," Itachi said flatly. "Details of gore are not for young minds on the brink of sleep."

~oOo~

The teams met at the entrance of the Hokage Building, and entered together. They were to be examined on the third floor, in room 301. Room 301 soon came into view, as well as a large number of genin hanging around it, being refused entry by a couple of people who looked a great deal like Izomu and Kotetsu, but younger, which tipped off Hinata, Sasuke and Shikamaru, who nudged the teams to keep going. Besides, they had only come up to the second floor. Let the people who couldn't figure it out mess up and fail this early, it meant it would be easier later.

Lee had to be physically gagged before he would let such an underhanded trick go unannounced, but eventually they got his struggling green form to the correct room, and then they had other things to worry about.

Fukurou was waiting at the door for them all, a smirk on her face as she leant against the wall.

"Glad to see you weren't all fooled," she said. "It's all about teamwork for now on, and remember to keep your eyes open and your mouths shut. Even if you see family in there, or any of your senseis, today they will not know you, and you can not know them. Help each other if you feel the need, I'd like to see all of you pass this year, but don't trust anybody else as far as their smile stretches."

"Hai Fukurou-san."

"Hai Fukurou-sensei."

"H-hai..."

She smiled at them all and gave her little brother a pat on the head before popping out of existence.

"I hate it when she does that," Sasuke said, running a hand through his hair.

"She ruffles everybody's hair Sasuke-kun," Hinata pointed out. "I'd have thought you would be the most used to it."

"I wasn't talking about that," he answered, surprised at the girl. "I was talking about the way she just pops out. It's not like a regular teleportation jutsu, and it makes my ears hurt. I don't mind her messing my hair, it's always a mess anyway."

Kiba and Naruto laughed at that, while Ino and Chouji moved to open the doors for everyone.

"Here we go," Temari said.

"This will be troublesome," Shikamaru added, as though it was guaranteed.

~oOo~

"I hate being helpless."

"I somehow doubt that you have ever been helpless."

"I have, but I've never been in a position where I've been specifically _forbidden_ from helping so thoroughly, when I still have the _physical _and_ mental ability_ _to_ help."

"You have to let them go sometime."

"Don't give me good advice Kakashi. I'm not in the mood for it."

"How about I give you a kiss instead then?"

Fukurou smiled at the suggestion and gladly accepted the kiss. Those, she was always in the mood for.

~oOo~

"I suggest you quiet down," said a man wearing the Konoha headband and purple clothes, interrupting the conversation of the rookies. "It's always a bit tense around here just before the exam starts, and you _could_ lose your head to some of the short tempered Rain nin just behind you if you don't quiet down."

Teams 2 and 9 both looked over, confirming that there were shinobi from Rain just behind them, and that they looked pissed already at the very least.

"I'd demand to know who you are to tell us that," Ino said, "but I honestly don't care."

"I'm Yakushi Kabuto," he said, "and judging by your cute little faces, you must be the rookies."

"Kabuto-san," Sakura asked, "is this your second exam?"

"No, it's my seventh. They happen twice every year, and this is my fourth year," Kabuto answered.

Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly. "Troublesome, are they really so difficult?"

Neji scoffed. "Or maybe he's just weak, or has a flaw in his character that he hasn't been passed."

Kabuto sighed. "Well, since you are new, perhaps I could give you some advice," he said, pulling out a deck of cards, which Sakura observed carefully. None of the other rookies paid much attention, deciding rather to resume conversation, if more quietly than before.

She wasn't particularly listening to the things he was telling her, though she allowed all of that information to sink in as well. Actually, she was more interested in his little card deck. It could be a useful trick.

Of course, someone took offence to being talked about. The shinobi team from Sound didn't like the way Kabuto had just skipped over their village, and decided to take exception to him.

Sakura stepped back quickly, catching the attention of her friends, who's heads all snapped around to watch the fight that was seconds away from breaking out. Kabuto dodged, but his glasses broke and his stomach emptied.

"Lee?" Tenten asked, checking his view.

"No problem with the physical aspect, the hit made no contact," he answered quietly. "It must be some kind of trick."

"The Sound nin had something on his arm," Sasuke added. "Filled with holes."

"Kabuto-san's chakra was disrupted, as though he was abruptly spun very fast and then stopped," Hinata stated in a whisper.

"Suddenly, I don't feel so supremely confident about this exam," Ino said quietly, as she looked between Kabuto and the Sound nin.

Around her, a few heads nodded gently. Their confidence had just taken a hit.

At the front of the room, a cloud erupted. Chakra and displaced air. The well-known transportation jutsu – that Fukurou-san had _not_ used.

"Alright you punks! Settle down!" a voice yelled. A voice that the rookies, thanks to Fukurou, recognised. Smirks appeared on their faces as they looked to see the man standing before the room, uniformed jounin standing around behind him. That coat really did make him an imposing figure, particularly with the scars on his face and the bandanna that he was always wearing.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," he said, unapologetic. "I am the examiner of the first test of the Chuunin Selection Exam, Morino Ibiki."

Those who had seen him earlier snickered quietly and whispered to the others just _why_ he had kept them waiting, and quickly hushed them as well. It wouldn't do to ruin the man's reputation after all, particularly considering the circumstances, and that he was laying down the rules for the exam just then. No fighting with other genin unless permitted. No killing at all. If these rules were broken, then the genin would be kicked out. Apart from that, they were all to immediately collect a number and sit, then the examiners would hand out paper tests for them to complete.

Naruto was not impressed with this last piece of information.

Ino hit him on the back of the head to shut him up, and made eye contact with Sakura. For now, their rivalry was being put aside. They wanted to impress their sensei, and to do that, they'd have to get past Ibiki-san.

Once they were all seated, Ibiki explained the rules for scoring the tests, and the various consequences. He wasn't giving them much in the way of allowances, and he had made eye-contact once with Sasuke. There had been no sign of recognition from the man at all.

Carefully, the cheating began.

Sakura didn't need to cheat, and Ino carefully slipped into her mind to read the answers from her page when she was done – with permission, for once, rather than as an attack or infiltration method. With her own answer sheet filled in, Ino then took possession of Naruto, who was generally confused and panicking slightly.

"Shut up iditot," she told him as she entered his mind. "Sakura and I have you covered."

Once she had helped Naruto, she moved on to help Chouji.

Gaara used his sand, Kankuro and Temari took advantage of the strings Tenten had attached to the mirrors above, as did Lee. Akamaru barked answers to Kiba, and Shino's bugs gave him his answers. Hinata, Neji and Sasuke used their eyes, looking through or mimicking the motions of others.

Shikamaru considered cheating, and he knew that was the point of the test from Ibiki's point of view, but he also knew that he _could_ figure it out on his own. Right now, it would be less troublesome to skip cheating, simply because cheating would need more effort. He applied pencil to paper. It wasn't all that _hard_ for him anyway, just troublesome.

That only left the tenth question, and its 'impossible' rule.

Part of them had to smirk in admiration at Fukurou-san's sensei. Torture and Interrogation Squad Captain. He was very good. They could _see_ the sweat on the others in the room. Naruto came very close to yelling at the man that he refused to lose to someone he had seen that morning come begging for a hangover cure, but Fukurou-san's warning kept him in check – she'd told him to keep his mouth shut, and she'd truly acknowledged him in a way no one else ever had before she came into his life. He would not let her down.

Kiba didn't mind opening his mouth though, demanding to know what was with the rule about never being able to take the exam again, which made Ibiki laugh.

It wasn't long until the first genin raised his hand, and then many more followed, as though the floodgates had been opened. None of them did though. They all thought on the words Fukurou had given to them, so generously, before they had entered the exam: "Today, everything is a test. I expect you all to pass." She'd treated them all to a fancy dinner. Some of them she had treated several times. To Naruto she had given a home, to Sasuke she was his onee-san, to others she was sensei and a good friend despite the age difference. To all of them, she was the reason that they knew Ibiki-san outside of these circumstances. They would not be intimidated by this man.

The numbers dwindled, and the clock ticked.

"Your time for deciding is over," Ibiki announced. "This is your last chance to leave so that you may try again next year."

One last team raised their hands and left, an older Konohagakure squad, but not the one with Kabuto-san in it.

"Those of you still in this room," Ibiki said, frowning slightly as the door closed behind the last team. "You pass!"

When a genin from Ame who had stuck it out demanded to know about the last question, the rookies smirked to see Ibiki's biggest grin spreading across his face. Oh yes, he was a sadist with a sense of humour all right.

"Your tenth question was your choice," he answered, grinning widely.

"So the other nine questions were a waste?" asked another nin from Iwa.

"No, they were to test your information gathering skills," Ibiki answered, proceeding to explain the reasons for and the loopholes in his rules, which by that point at least _most_ of the shinobi in the room had figured out.

Then everybody learned something new about Morino Ibiki – they learned what was beneath his bandanna. Seeing the old burns, cuts, and screw holes, the rookies who had previously met and enjoyed the man's company, wondered if Fukurou-san knew about them, and suddenly wondered if she had any similar scars that she kept hidden.

That was a very inspiring speech he gave afterwards, though it's impact was slightly ruined by the impact of Mitarashi Anko through the window.


	20. Chapter 20

"You're actually, truly, seriously related to that crazy woman?" Naruto asked Shizune as the rookie teams and their sensei sat around the Uchiha dining table after dinner that night.

Shizune laughed. "Yes Naruto, I really am, which should tell you to be more careful of her," she answered, ruffling his hair.

"Why?" Naruto asked. "You're really nice."

"And really deadly," Itachi scolded the blond. "The few remaining Mitarashi's are experts in poison, and Anko likes to keep a few nasty surprises up her sleeves for when people get irritating as a little bonus. It's a shame there are people in this village who look down on her because of who her sensei was. She's wonderful," he added with a sigh.

"Konoha to Itachi-chan," Fukurou said, waving a hand in front of her little brother's face.

Itachi sat up straight and blushed deeply.

"Fukurou-nee-san, I-" Itachi started.

"I'm happy for you Otouto," Fukurou interrupted. "But make sure you let her know you're serious. After the exams though, she's a little busy right now."

"Oh yeah, she said to ask our sensei about where we would be taking the second part of the exam tomorrow before she dismissed us," Chouji said.

"She's picked the 44th training area," the sensei all answered at once, including Ibiki who had joined them in their celebratory dinner, congratulating each of the genin on how they had taken his test.

"And again, you will be given the option of not taking part," Ibiki added. "And you will have to sign a document relieving Konoha of guilt in the event of your deaths."

"I thought killing wasn't allowed in the exams," Ino said. "You told us all so yourself this morning Ibiki-san."

Ibiki nodded. "That's right, but the 44th training area has a reputation, Anko-san will probably tell you herself when you get there in the morning."

Further down the table, Kankuro, his arm once again wrapped around Haku's waist, was complimenting Tenten on her manipulation of the mirrors in the first examination.

"Though I could see the strings very clearly," he said, "you handled it very well. Do you do much in that sort of area?"

"No, not really, and the examiners didn't seem to notice my strings," Tenten answered.

"Kankuro's speciality is pulling strings," Temari said. "He was in a bad location to do it though, on the furthest side while the mirrors were directly above you. We were all most fortunate."

"If you like, I'll teach you a few tricks, after the examinations are over," Kankuro offered to Tenten before he pulled his attention back to Haku. "You won't be jealous will you, if I teach Tenten a trick or two? She's besotted with Neji after all, and I only have eyes for you."

Tenten, Neji and Haku all blushed deeply at Kankuro's comment, but Haku was smiling slightly – a good sign for Kankuro – and Neji surreptitiously took Tenten's hand in his under the table, making her blush deepen as a small smile appeared on her face.

Fukurou clapped loudly from the head of the table.

"All those with exams in the morning, either get to your meditation or to sleep, tomorrow will be a big day and I want you all in top condition for it. Those interested in going out drinking, I suggest _moderation_ and that you go searching for it _elsewhere_," Fukurou said, banishing everybody from the table, something she didn't normally do, but was necessary just now.

Tomorrow was a big day after all.

She glared at the dishes a moment as people began to filter out, withdrew her wand and watched in satisfaction as everything became clean before flying to put itself away.

Hinata, Shikamaru and Sakura stood by, wanting to talk to her before they left.

"Yes?"

"Fukurou-sensei, may we take our broomsticks with us tomorrow?" Hinata asked, stepping forward, obviously the spokesperson for this inquiry.

Fukurou smiled at her genin.

"Come and collect them from me in the morning before you go to the 44th training area," she instructed her genin proudly. "I think you're ready to fly without my supervision, but I'd still rather you didn't take them home with you, where they could get used as regular brooms by mistake."

~oOo~

"Be careful today, alright?" she told her genin, Naruto, Sasuke and the sand siblings as she farewelled them from the Uchiha gate. "You all packed bentos?"

"Hai! We'll make you proud Fukurou-sensei!"

"Hai hai, Fukurou-san."

"Yes Fuu-nee-san, stop worrying already. Go have a date with Kakashi-san."

Fukurou smiled at these, some of her precious people.

"Alright," she said, holding up her hands in surrender. "I'll see you all later."

With a last wave at their retreating forms, Fukurou went into her study and unlocked the map she had made, quickly circling the gate of the Forest of Death where the teams were all meeting. Looking through the groups, she smiled at the variety of names among them, until she came to one which made her heart stop for a moment.

"Tsunade! Jiraiya! Orochimaru is in the village!" she screamed.

They came running.

"Where?" Tsunade demanded. "And how do you know?"

Fukurou pointed to her map. "He's masquerading as a genin taking the exam, he must be after someone among them."

"I'll tell the Hokage," Jiraiya said, and with a poof of chakra he was gone.

"We will go directly and wring the bastard's bloody neck," Tsunade said with a growl.

"You will go," Fukurou corrected. "I will stay here and monitor him. If you're late, and he gets in there, I'll be needed here to give directions so that we can get him out again as quickly as possible. Besides, I'd just as soon not meet him."

Tsunade nodded and made herself scarce.

Fukurou muttered a spell and touched her wand to the one in group of genin who were nearing the training area.

"Hinata-chan? Hinata-chan can you hear me?" she said softly.

"Fukurou-sensei?" Hinata's disembodied voice answered, surprised.

"Yes, I need you to get everybody together and away from there, right now. There's a dangerous criminal pretending to be a genin in the exams hanging around. I want you all well out of the way. Don't let anybody argue with you, not Naruto-chan, not Neji-kun, not even Temari-san. None of you are able to handle this guy. Tsunade-hime is on her way there if she hasn't arrived already, and so are Jiraiya-san and Hokage-sama. I need you to move quickly Hinata-chan. Let everybody get their forms handed in, their scrolls collected, but then bring everybody back to the Uchiha estate."

"H-hai Fukurou-sensei," Hinata answered, and Fukurou was pleased to see the dot representing the girl moving quickly to get everybody together and explaining to them what was going on, even pointing out Tsunade's presence to them to emphasise her point.

It took five minutes for the kids to return, and Fukurou immediately ushered them all into her study and showed them her map, pointing out the name Orochimaru to all of them and explaining who he was, as well as the horrific things he had done.

"He's a great man with great ambitions," she said at last, sitting down. "He just happens to be a shocking bastard and completely lacking in any kind of moral, ethical or spiritual code as well, and I don't want him setting his greedy gaze on any of you."

The genin all nodded their understanding.

"I've sent a bunshin with a message to Anko, so she knows what is going on as well, and rather than any of you starting at the gates, I will be dropping you a bit deeper into the forest personally... Once _he_ has been dealt with," Fukurou added, turning now to watch the map with the genin, concerned for the outcome of the confrontation that was beginning.

~oOo~

Tsunade grimaced at the smell of him. She didn't know why, but for some reason he always _smelt_ the same, and she frankly didn't like it, never had, despite his good looks when they had been younger and before he had been so blatantly a bastard. Back when he'd actually been a fairly nice guy, he'd still smelt like that.

Just for old time's sake, she used a chakra-enhanced fist to punch the bastard's skull in.

She hadn't expected a Konoha and an Oto team to come to his aid as well as the two Kusa-nin who had been in his 'team', but she wasn't a sanin for nothing, and the snake wasn't the only one with backup. Tsunade noted with dry amusement that Mitarashi Anko was running to her side, intent on beating up the guy who had once been like a father to her. Jiraiya and the Hokage both appeared quickly as well.

The jounin and chuunin were escorting the other genin teams to their gateway entrances to the exam, as far away from this soon-to-be battle field as they could get them.

~oOo~

Sakura stood up in surprise and approached the map.

"Fukurou-sensei, this one and I talked before the first examination, he's got cards loaded with information about every shinobi he's ever met, and a few more that he hasn't," Sakura said, touching the dot named Yakushi Kabuto.

"How complete was his information?" Fukurou asked.

"On some people, it was very comprehensive, others not so much. He has much in the way of statistics though, so he has probably had access to hidden village files. He had more information on Sand and Leaf nin than any others. If he's actually working for Orochimaru..."

"Then we can assume that it was Orochimaru who got him to that information," Fukurou completed the thought with a scowl. "The bastard knows who he's after, and being a bastard he won't like the idea of being stopped, but for now he thinks you are all in the forest already, so he will try to go there, and if he _does_ head this way, we will know about it."

Fukurou turned to her map and sought out Kakashi, and with the same spell she had used to talk to Hinata, told him what was happening. He appeared in her office barely a moment later, a swirls of leaves announcing his arrival.

Fukurou was pacing her office, the fight being displayed on her map only worrying at her nerves.

"You know," Kakashi said, as he wrapped his arms around Fukurou, forcing her to halt her pacing as he turned her to face him, "if you were to just go yourself, I'm sure you would be able to bring an end to this much faster. Then you could stop worrying."

Fukurou buried her face in Kakashi's green vest, holding back hot tears.

"Oh yes, I know how to end their lives with magic. It would be very easy to do as well. I will feel filthy for a very long time, but I know how. Sometimes the knowledge makes me feel filthy. If I'm not willing to make an effort for the kill, why should I be credited with making it?" she was starting to ramble now, so she bit her lip to silence herself.

"What frightens you more Fukurou?" he asked gently, holding her to him tightly. "That you will be taking life the wrong way for the right reasons, or that he could take the lives of one or more of your students if you don't?"

"Option B," she answered, wiping at her eyes.

Zabuza entered with Haku, both carrying trays of hot drinks, and shared them around.

"Fukurou-san," Zabuza said when his tray was empty. "I am willing to go and fight the monster as well. It is a pittance of thanks for all you have done for me and Haku. I am strong, but not particularly 'gifted', as this Orochimaru guy seems to like his host bodies to be, so you needn't worry for me."

"I'm the head of the family you are now part of Zabuza-san," Fukurou answered, her voice stronger despite the slight shake of not-quite surpassed tears. "It's part of my job to worry for you, and I take it on gladly. All the same, thank you, I would be most grateful for your support."

The tall man nodded and went to fetch his sword.

Fukurou gave Kakashi a quick hug. When Zabuza returned, they both used a teleportation jutsu to take them out to the 44th training ground.

"If she doesn't come back," Sasuke said, arms crossed over his chest and Itachi standing behind him, "I will never forgive her, Zabuza-san, or you Kakashi-senpai."

Itachi nodded his agreement.

Kakashi sighed and gestured to the map.

"You're not the only ones," he told them. "But we can only watch now," he added, clearly unhappy with the situation as well.

~oOo~

Mist, unaccountable mist closed in around the battlefield, and the sound of metal through flesh tore through the muffled air. Even to seasoned fighters like Sarutobi and Jiraiya, it was disturbing. To Tsunade, it was a resurrection of bad memories and worse. Anko growled and continued to seek her enemy. She would _kill_ Orochimaru for what he had done to her, and for what he continued to do to others like her.

A voice, a bone-chilling voice that sounded like water as it echoed, dripping, deep in limestone caves, rang clear and haunting through the mist. The voice said only two words.

"_Avada Kedavra_."

The sounds of steel on flesh halted with a final swish.

"You really _didn't_ need help for this," another voice, deeper, male, commented from within the shrouding mist.

"I'm going home," another voice, like the first but with a different timbre. "Are you coming or will you walk?"

"I'll walk," the second voice answered.

There was silence again, and the mist slowly began to clear.

To the Hokage, sanin and chuunin, Zabuza came into view slowly.

"I have a nasty feeling there will be screams in the night for a while," Zabuza said as he approached them, "and Fukurou-san isn't one that screams easily."

"What happened?" Sarutobi demanded.

"Hatake-san talked to her, and he got through," Zabuza answered, sourly. "It is easy to forget, when I look at her, that Fukurou-san has been a shinobi for a greater portion of her life than you have, Hokage-sama. I would very much like for it to not be true."

He turned from them and started walking.

Anko felt the mark that Orochimaru had given her all those years ago fade away. She was finally free of his taint.

~oOo~

"Fuu-nee-san?" Sasuke asked, when she reappeared in the yard of the Uchiha estate.

"Yes Sasuke-chan?" she answered, only to have him come barrelling into her. He was only the first of many. Nearly everybody came out to see her.

Kakashi pulled down his mask and kissed her firmly when he reached her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, checking her all over for any visible injuries. "I'm sorry I got you to do that."

"I'm sorry I had to, but I'm not sorry that I did it," Fukurou answered soberly. "Teams, you are to come into my office one at a time, and I shall transport you to places throughout the forest. I'm going to assume some of you were sensible enough to raid my kitchen while you had the chance. It's time you got back to your examination."

On the map, the dots and their associated names were fading. Not one of the shinobi who had fought alongside Orochimaru had been left alive after he had been dispatched by her spell.

Three by three, the genin went into her office, presented her with their scroll, and she turned it into a portkey which would drop them near to another team who may or may not have the opposing match. One use only, and worked the instant they all touched it. When all the genin were gone, Zabuza and her house guests returned, and only Kakashi remained waiting for her of everybody who had been in Uchiha estate while Orochimaru was at large within Konoha, Fukurou was glad to sink into his arms and cry softly. Self-control, meditation, and shinobi code be damned.

"I hate how easy it is to kill, just by saying two simple, bloody words," she told him when she was calmed down again at last. "It has no honour to it, even when performed for the sake of protecting others."

Kakashi did his best to sooth her, holding her in his lap and close to his chest, stroking her short black hair and kissing her forehead.

"I shouldn't have asked you to do that, I'm sorry Fukurou," he said quietly, his own voice also slightly choked with emotion.

"No Kakashi, what I just did was the best thing for the people I care about. It was just a decision that I didn't want to make, and I was being weak about it," Fukurou answered, shaking her head furiously.

"But it wasn't what was best for _you_," Kakashi pointed out, wiping at her tear-stained cheek.

"I can't argue with that, so I won't," she said flatly. It was one of the Unforgivable curses, and would label her as a dark witch if anyone back in the magical world found out that she had used it, as it was she felt filthy on the inside from simply having said the words, "but I've got you, and I'll be alright as long as I've got you and everybody is still alright," she turned to look at the map.

She hadn't used the curse for fun, or to forward her own specific agenda, she had used it to keep those she cared about safe. She had to believe that she wouldn't ever become like the Death Eaters.

"They've got another few days before their time is up, but they're already heading to the tower. Did I cheat terribly on their behalf?" she asked, tearing herself away from her thoughts and back to the present.

"Yes, but I don't think anybody will be able to blame you at this point," Kakashi answered. "If they try, you could always try dumping them at a random place in the forest of death and see if they come out saying the same thing."

Fukurou chuckled at that, weakly, but there was a smile and a chuckle all the same, and that was an improvement. It wasn't as horrific as being instructed in torture, interrogation, and how to make sure you never gave away anything in the event of getting caught, after all. It just made her skin crawl.

There was a knock at the door, and Fukurou shifted off Kakashi's lap so that he could let in whoever it was.

Tsunade stood there with a tray of mugs balanced on one hand. They were steaming, and smelled like cocoa.

"What happened out there, I don't want to know," she said as she handed over the mugs. "What I want to know is if it was actually you, because the first voice we heard didn't sound like you Fukurou-san."

"Yes, it was me." She just wished that it hadn't been.


	21. Chapter 21

As the various genin put away their scrolls, they were all agreed that they never wanted to travel like that again, even if it was efficient. Naruto and Sasuke groaned to their teams that, no, it just _wasn't_ something that a person got used to. Not that any of the teams were aware of their friends doing the exact same thing in another part of the forest of death, and not that they really had all that much time to dwell on it.

They had other teams to steal from after all, and many of them were quickly realising that just because they had been dropped deep in, having not needed to waste the energy required to get them to this point, Fukurou hadn't really done them the best of favours. Nearly all of them were thinking along the lines of "Why did she have to drop us _here_?"

The sand siblings found their targets quickly, Ame nin in sand-coloured body suits and with masks on their faces. Rather, they stepped on them without bothering to be delicate. No one so weak and foolish defeated Gaara unless he was playing particularly nice, and this exam wasn't about playing nice. They were the only ones who had a perfectly easy time.

Team 2 were dropped near some Taki nin who seemed to be in a particularly bad mood, and challenged their ability to break out of genjutsu. Teams 7 and 9 both found themselves pitted against shinobi from Konoha, a difficult moral decision, but one they were forced to make quickly. Team 8 fought against Iwa nin, whose heads were as hard as the rocks they lived among.

They left their various opponents imprisoned, severely wounded, in one case dead – Iwa nin apparently weren't so good at swallowing what Akamaru gave them to eat.

"I still say that was disgusting," Sasuke told Kiba.

Kiba smirked. "Akamaru is free to dump it where he likes," he defended. "It's his own fault for inhaling."

"Lets just get to the tower," Shino insisted, leading the way through the trees, guided by his bugs.

~oOo~

The sensei waited in the tower for their genin, Anko and Asuma waiting with them. The former to give them their last instructions of her part of the exam, the latter to oversee the next proceeding. His genin team hadn't made it past the bells test, but he was still a qualified jounin, and so he was taking advantage of the chance to talk to Kurenai for a while.

Anko rolled her eyes, wandering past Asuma and Kurenai to talk to Gai, Kakashi and Fukurou.

"Think those two are a couple?" she asked, jerking her thumb at them.

"They do flirt rather obviously," Fukurou answered, wearing a crooked smile, once more forcing herself to move on from what wrenched at her heart – so she was still getting over the killing curse bit, leave be – as she had long taught herself to do now. The civilian slogan 'always smile, you'll mean it more often' she had chanced to see one day while walking through London had become a good philosophy for her ever since.

"Though I expect they think they're being subtle, and I'll bet money that if they aren't a couple already, then they haven't figured out the other is flirting back," she added, looking over at them and back.

"Of course, they wouldn't admit to anything if you asked them outright anyway," Anko said with a sigh and a shrug.

"They're a pair," Kakashi interjected. "Have been for a while is my understanding, they just don't talk about it."

Gai nodded, a frown on his face. "They treat their relationship as one of 'friends with benefits', afraid that if they say the words 'partner' or 'love' that it will end. It is most _un_-youthful."

"Not like the love Itachi had been displaying for Anko, eh Fukurou?" Kakashi asked, draping his arm contentedly around the Uchiha family head's lovely waist.

Anko blushed and froze up.

"Hn," she agreed. "I've pounded it into him that he's to be a gentleman, and if he wants to court anybody he's to do it properly. Of course the way he was making eyes over just the thought of Anko at breakfast this morning, I wouldn't be surprised if he started looking for a ring soon," Fukurou answered, chuckling and leaning into him. It felt good to be able to laugh and tease so soon after... that, even if it was slightly forced.

"You... you don't disapprove?" Anko asked tentatively. She may not like authority figures, and certainly didn't go in for public displays of respect, but that didn't mean that she didn't feel at least a little tentative when she was around heads of clans. Particularly if she was interested in _joining_ that clan.

Fukurou laughed outright. "If you make him happy, and he makes you happy, then why should I? Of course, I expect you to come to dinner some time soon, it wouldn't be completely proper if you didn't," the head of the Uchiha clan answered the girl, grinning hugely.

Anko's blush deepened, but there was a shy smile on her face, quite unlike her usual brash one.

"Thank you, I would like that."

Fukurou nodded in finality. "Good. Itachi-chan needs someone who can beat away his silly fangirls, and I'm a bit busy keeping Kakashi's away lately to be able to do a proper job of it."

"Ah, my eternal rival, burning with youthful love! I am so proud of you!" Gai wept, thankfully not _too_ loudly.

The genin began to arrive, and Kakashi was never more glad to see them.

~oOo~

"This is not good," Fukurou said as she listened to Asuma explain what was going on and saw the first match up that was being displayed on the screen in the centre of the tower. There had apparently been too many genin passing the second examination, and now most if not all of the genin would be facing off against their friends, preventing people they cared about from being able to continue.

It was Tenten against Temari.

Though the two girls didn't really know each other very well, they had come to reach a mutual respect fairly quickly, and Fukurou was sure they would have made great friends if given the chance. Now they had to fight, and as good as Tenten was with her weapons, that wouldn't do her any good if she couldn't get the weapons to touch Temari, whose fan just knocked them all out of the way.

"Sorry sweetie," Temari told her opponent as she nearly broke her back over her fan. "Nothing personal. I'll take you out to a spa or something once you're all healed up."

"Yeah, nothing personal," Tenten agreed weakly as Temari was declared the winner. "I'll hold you to that," she added, meaning the spa. "After getting pounded by you, I need it."

Temari laughed gently and helped the other girl back out of the fighting zone and over to where some medic-nin were waiting to attend to the genin who had become injured in the fight.

The second match was Sasuke against Shikamaru.

Fukurou was torn, as she adored both the boys and wished neither of them hurt. One, her brother, the precious baby of the family. The other her only male genin. She could only be silent as she watched. If she had cheered either on, or dared to hope for one over the other, she would have felt as though she were betraying her love for the other.

Shikamaru won, and as she looked at them, she was proud to see him carrying Sasuke up to the medic-nins, ignoring the way his own body was protesting movement, let alone supporting the weight of another. It had truly been a very close fight.

"I wonder if Fukurou-sensei will forgive me for beating you up."

"I wonder if she'll forgive me for not fighting harder."

She could only be proud of both of them, and would tell them both so, later.

Lee fought Gaara impressively, but he was ultimately pulverised.

"I hope he will be alright," the redhead said as the boy was wheeled away by the medic-nins. "I didn't actually hit him very hard."

"He'll be alright Gaara-san," Fukurou said gently, laying an arm around his shoulders. "It was his own techniques that hurt him so much. They made him powerful, but at a great price."

Gaara nodded.

"I will visit him in the hospital perhaps."

Fukurou nodded and turned to watch Shino fight against Kankuro.

It quickly became apparent that, when bugs got into joints and actually ate at the strings of chakra, Kankuro's puppets weren't quite so effective. They were clever things, and he had great skill with them, but against Shino's tiny bugs they had a couple of flaws. Kankuro was consoled that it seemed to _only_ be against trained tiny stuff – like bugs – that he was weak, and he asked Shino to never let his bugs use his puppets as a hive or nest.

"They prefer to nest in living people, rather than false ones," Shino answered.

"That's just a _bit_ creepy," Kankuro said, eyeing the bug that had just disappeared down behind the other boy's collar.

Sakura and Ino fought each other, and it looked like Ino was going to win when she got into Sakura's head with her family technique, but Sakura had managed to throw her out and withdrew a senbon from her holster. Fukurou was both surprised and pleased with her student as she threw the large needle, just as Haku and Shizune had taught her, into the flesh just above Ino's collarbone.

Ino had just been getting up from being thrown back into her own mind when the needle hit, and she went down again and started humming a nursery tune.

"There's a hallucinogen on the needle," Sakura said with a small smile. "Ino-pig just thinks she's four again," she added, going to collect her friend and carry her off.

"Sakura-chan! Do you like my singing?" Ino asked.

"Hai, and thank you for the hair ribbon you gave me," she answered.

"It's one of my favourites, but I think it suits you better."

Chouji chuckled as he watched his team mate, reduced so far within her mind at that moment. Then his name appeared on the screen, opposite Neji's.

"This is gonna hurt," he muttered as he went down to the fighting arena.

Neji was the only one of his team to win their fight, but Chouji, despite knowing that it would hurt, had put up a good fight and made Neji sweat for his win. It was an impressive effort, and the fight received awed applause when it was over.

Hinata fought next, her opponent was Naruto.

Fukurou swallowed, Sakura standing next to her nervously.

"She said when we became a team that she liked Naruto," Sakura whispered. "Do you think she'll be able to put that aside for long enough to fight him?"

"I don't know Sakura-chan," and again she didn't know if she hoped the little Hyuuga would be able to overcome her own concerns, or that Naruto would be able to defeat her and be able to continue to prove himself to the village.

It was almost a draw, but two voices yelled one name at the last moment, and one of the genin fighting was able to keep their feet after the two hard strikes that had been exchanged.

Hinata walked back to the platform, surprised to have won, and surprised to see Kiba coming towards her, checking over her injuries and turning to Sakura, who was right behind him, stepping aside so that she could do something.

"You yelled my name," she said in awe, looking between the two.

Kiba smiled, showing his fangs.

"Well, the two of you were both going down, and I didn't like the idea of you hitting your pretty head. Naruto, I'm sure, has already taken several hits to his head," Kiba answered.

"Th-thank you," Hinata stammered, blushing slightly at the way he was smiling.

Sakura chuckled quietly. "Konoha to Hinata-chan," she called gently, grabbing the other girls attention. "You need some sleep, and a general slow healing. I've started the healing, but I think the rest of it, and the sleep, is going to wait a bit, isn't it?"

Hinata smiled.

"Thank you Sakura-chan."

There were some fights of other genin, members of teams from Kumo, Kiri and Taki fighting each other, before Kiba's fight, the final fight, against the last member of the team from Kiri. Unsurprisingly, the Mist nin started by filling the room with mist. It didn't bother the dog nin and his companion though. They sniffed him out and attacked him from behind, ignoring the various bunshin trying to intimidate him by their numbers while pinning him down. With his opponent knocked out, the mist cleared and Kiba stood grinning.

"Well, I guess we're through as well," he said, squatting beside the prone form of his foe and scratching Akamaru's back jovially.

~oOo~

The dinner at the Uchiha estate that night was very much a party. Tsunade had decided to supply some sake for the drinkers among the adults as well, which meant Anko was literally in Itachi's lap with even less inhibition than usual, and Ibiki was wearing his Kami-awful drinking shirt again.

"No flying if you want to drink," Fukurou warned everybody seriously.

The sand siblings, curious about how Konoha nin flew, soon learned and Temari was up among them on her fan in no time, while Haku had Kankuro as a pillion. Gaara decided to remain on the ground, despite Fukurou offering him the same.

Turning from the boy, Fukurou was surprised to see Sakura sitting beside Shino on the edge of the garden and asking about his bugs, but considering she had been studying with the slug sanin, maybe not so surprising...

Kiba and Hinata were playing broom-tag – a game that had been invented or innovated by her genin. They would chase each other on their broomsticks, and to tag they had to do a barrel roll around whoever they were chasing, tapping them lightly on the back between their shoulder-blades. First they had to catch up with them though, and with Hinata flying, that was quite a feat. The way Temari and Shikamaru were playing the same game though seemed more like flirting every time one of them crossed above the other and ducked underneath before speeding off, smiling.

"This is really quite nice," Nara Shikaku said, his arm around his own wife, for once silent, as they sat on the porch together, not far from Shino and Sakura, watching the genin who were flying around or talking, and the older shinobi sharing pleasant conversation and smiling in good company.

"It is a good environment for the young ones," agreed Temura-sama, who was sitting with Mrs Haruno on a bench in the garden near the other parents.

"I wonder if the environment at home is as good, for some of them," commented Chouza, head of the Akimichi clan, glancing pointedly at Neji.

"All the more reason for them to appreciate the haven Uchiha Fukurou-sama has opened up to them," Shikaku said firmly to his friend and team mate. "She even lets my son read from her library and plays _go_ with him when he has completed his physical training for the day, I cannot think badly of her."

"Even if she brought shinobi from Mist into our village?" asked Yamanaka Inoichi, the third member of the old "Ino-Shika-Cho" team that had almost been recreated again in this generation, and head of his own small clan, like his friends and team mates.

"It is not so troublesome to be their friends as it would be if we met them in the battlefield and they were our enemies," Nara answered, seriously.

"Haku is a good student to me, and very loyal to those who have shown him kindness, like Zabuza-san who first took him in, and now Fukurou-san who has given them both a permanent and caring home," Tamura-sama said, adding his two-ryu worth.

Inuzuka Tsume and her older daughter Hana joined the other parents who were watching their children and abruptly changed the topic of the conversation.

"Did you hear that the genin from Kimi and Taki dropped out of the final round? They didn't like the idea of fighting the winners from the preliminary round," she said, clearly proud of her son for making it.

~oOo~

By the time the matches were being decided, only eight genin had not dropped out. Four matches, then another two where the winners of the previous battles fought each other, with only a little over a week to prepare, and they would be fighting their friends. A final round to discover the strongest genin of the year would only occur if the contestants wished it. It would serve no true purpose really.


	22. Chapter 22

Fukurou called her team of genin together, as well as Temari and Gaara. She had news for them.

"Your opponents for the next round of fights has been listed," she told them solemnly. "Shikamaru-kun, you will be fighting against Kiba-san in the first round. Temari-san, you will be fighting Shino-san. Whoever wins from your fights, will go on to fight each other in the next round."

"Shino-san, the one with the bugs who defeated Kankuro?" Temari asked.

Fukurou nodded.

"He is on the same genin team as Kiba-san and Sasuke-chan," she added, before turning to continue her task. "Sakura-chan, Gaara-kun, you will be fighting each other in the first round."

They looked at each other.

"Nothing personal, huh?" Sakura asked, trying to smile.

Gaara pulled at a weak smile of his own. "I wish you luck, and myself restraint," he said. "But I will not just _let_ you win, Sakura-san."

"Fukurou-sensei, that means I will be fighting Neji-nii-san," Hinata said.

"I'm afraid so, and if you win your fight, then you will have to fight Sakura-chan or Gaara-san," Fukurou agreed, nodding sadly. "You all _could_ win any of these fights. You have the skills and the potential. Only your opponent stands in your way, and that means that some of your fights will be harder than others, and for very different reasons."

Heads nodded in understanding, and Fukurou sighed deeply, running a hand through her hair and pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Then if you will excuse us, Fukurou-san," Temari said, standing. "Gaara and I will train with Kankuro for a while. You have your own team to train."

Gaara nodded and stood also.

"Temari and Kankuro will train, I will meditate," he corrected.

Fukurou smiled at them. "Thank you," she said. "I'd feel terribly outnumbered if I was trying to prepare five genin for the exam."

The sand siblings smiled. They each embraced her shortly and with a nod left the training ground to collect the last member of their family.

Fukurou turned her attention back to her own genin.

"I want all of you to succeed in your battles, but that won't happen, and I will not show particular favour to any of you in training. Sakura-chan, Tsunade-hime and Shizune-san are busy at the hospital this week, so you will not be able to solicit extra training from them either." Fukurou said.

"What will training be this week Fukurou-sensei?" Hinata asked.

"Taijutsu and ninjutsu mostly. I'm going to make you work on your speed, your strength, and you have free reign in my library, and make sure you take liberties in your own at home. You will practice ninjutsu for three hours, then you will run, laps, ten times around the village wall to start with. Each day I will double it, and you had better not take longer to complete the task just because you had to do more laps. After running, you will practice your strikes, your kicks, and your blocks. You will practice your throws and your landings. You will dodge. This will go on until an hour after sunset. Only eat in the mornings before you come, or you will throw up."

"Sounds like we might die before the exams come," Shikamaru said. "Troublesome."

"If we survive it," Sakura added, horrified, "We'll be weak as noodles made of gelatin."

"Or we shall be very strong," Hinata countered. "Neji-nii-san is often complaining of Rock Lee-san's determination to be a 'genius of hard work', but we have seen how strong he can be."

Her team mates nodded.

"Ninjutsu?" they asked their sensei, standing up.

Fukurou nodded firmly. "Ninjutsu."

Magic, once again, was something that was not going to be immediately useful to them. There were more familiar cans of whoop-ass that she could teach her team how to unload on their opponents, and that would be more effective and recognisable to their assessors.

~oOo~

"Hinata-san, how was training today?" Neji asked his cousin when she appeared in the gate of the Hyuuga estate.

"Exhausting," she answered weakly, smiling slightly as she looked up at him. "But then, Fukurou-sensei is getting me ready to fight against you in my first fight of the Third Exam," she added.

Neji tensed, surprised. "We know who we're fighting now?" he asked. "Gai-sensei went to see Lee-san in the hospital today, and I visited with Tenten-chan. I hadn't heard," he explained.

Hinata nodded and stubbornly stumbled in under her own power until she was able to sit on the porch near Neji.

"Whoever of us wins our fight, has to fight whoever wins between Gaara-san and Sakura-chan," she added.

"I'll call a bath for you, Hinata-san," Neji said, unsure what else he could say at that point.

"Thank you Neji-nii-san," Hinata said, a tired but grateful smile on her face. "You promise me, Neji-nii-san, you will take me seriously when we fight," she added firmly. "If you don't take me seriously, I will simply have to do something mean."

Neji chuckled. "I don't believe you have a genuinely mean bone in your body," he told her. "I'll get you that bath."

Hinata smiled after him, grateful that they were finally properly friends, as they had not been allowed to be for so long. That was thanks to Fukurou-sensei as well. "Well, maybe not mean," she conceded, allowing herself to rest for a moment. "Probably just embarrassing."

"It is you who is the embarrassment," Hyashi said, emerging from his office at that moment, hand having only caught the last three words from his daughter's mouth. "You who are weak, a failure at the family techniques!"

"Otou-sama," Hinata greeted, "I have been studying several of our family's techniques, and sensei says that I am becoming very strong. Is it not something obvious yet, since I am in the final stage of the chuunin exams? Perhaps you will deign to come, Otou-sama, and see my improvement for yourself. I would like it very much if Hanabi-chan could come also."  
"Hinata-sama," Neji said, appearing at her side, bowing in the presence of her father. "Your bath is drawn. Is there anything else you would like?"

"Thank you Neji-nii-san," Hinata said, standing. "If someone would bring me some dinner, and perhaps one of the dustier scrolls from the library, so that I might study in preparation for tomorrow, I would appreciate it very much."

Neji bowed and chuckled gently as he straightened and took her arm to support her, seeing clearly that she was still tired.

"You shall run out of dusty scrolls to read shortly, Hinata-sama," he said. He used the formal address only in the presence of her father any more, and they had not left him behind just yet. "You read so many of them. What is in them?"

"Many secrets of our family and our fighting style," Hinata answered. "I am learning much, despite what Otou-sama chooses to believe of me."

Hyashi scowled deeply and returned to his office. He was most displeased, and he blamed not only Hinata, but also that Uchiha woman.

"_Be careful that you do not push your daughter, Hyuuga-sama, or she will learn how you strive to cripple her, and then she might just return the favour."_

He did not like that woman, or her barely concealed threats.

~oOo~

Shikamaru's mother, Yoshino, was surprised when he slumped immediately into the first chair he reached. He hadn't done that since before he made genin.

"What's the matter with you Shika-chan? I thought you enjoyed training with your sensei these days," she said, carrying her mixing bowl with her, stirring as she talked. Deer pellets didn't make themselves after all.

"For the sake of making sure we survive the Third Exam, Fukurou-sensei is going to kill us in training," Shikamaru answered. "I think I stink too," he added.

"Then go tend to the deer before you have a bath," Yoshino ordered. "If you already stink, then you won't mind getting a little stinkier!"

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered as he dragged himself out to check on the family animals, wondering why _he_ had to check on the deer. The Nara may not be a huge clan, but they had enough that it surely couldn't be his turn to check on the deer again so soon, and they were troublesome animals.

~oOo~

"Sakura! Are you alright dear?" a shocked Mrs Haruno asked as her daughter stumbled into the front room, heavily leaning against the wall.

"Hai, Mama," the girl assured. "Fukurou-sensei is just training us hard for the Third Exam, and I'm tired."

"Perhaps a hot bath then?" the older woman suggested, smiling at her strong, tired girl.

"Sounds great," Sakura answered, eyelids already drooping in weariness.

Mrs Haruno smiled, and made plans to prepare relaxing beauty treatments for her little girl, her world, every night for the week. If training every day would leave Sakura like this, then she would no doubt enjoy a little pampering in the evenings.

~oOo~

"Eh, Haku, you're so pretty today," Kankuro said as he snuggled the other boy closer to him at the dinner table.

Haku blushed and looked at the Sand nin. Since it had been explained to him why Kankuro kept up his pursuit, Haku had been slowly considering the other boy, and he had to appreciate that he knew how to accentuate this features with that war paint he was always wearing. It emphasised all the best parts of his face.

"Really, I mean it, the way the ice mirrors glittered around you when we were training, I mean, you're always pretty Haku, but how the light shimmered around you today, you were breathtaking," Kankuro assured.

"Th-thank you Kankuro-kun," Haku said quietly, and tried to think of some way of returning the compliment, possibly, without sounding too contrived or cheesy. Coming up short, he decided to just snuggle in. Sure, he could think of compliments, but they all sounded kinda dumb to him. Still, maybe he could try. "Your puppetry skills were very impressive too, did you make the puppet yourself?"

Kankuro smiled, very pleased that Haku was apparently beginning to at least welcome his affections, and maybe even return them. "No, I found it. I sometimes give it disguises though, which can be very useful. Perhaps I will make my own one day."

"I think you could craft wonderful puppets," Haku said, smiling, a slight blush on his cheeks.

~oOo~

Fukurou escorted Gaara to the hospital after dinner had been served to the patients. The boy had even bought a flower for the visit – perfectly round and thick with its many, many petals.

"It looks like Rock-san's haircut," he said when he selected it.

Fukurou had smiled and hugged the boy when he said that, and she reminded herself not to cry for happiness at the progress that the red head had made.

"Rock-san," Gaara said as he entered the room.

"Ah, hello!" Lee answered from his hospital bed. "This is a surprise!"

Gaara nodded. "I came to see that you were not permanently damaged," he said. "I did not think I had hit you so hard."

Lee shook his head. "You do hit very hard, Gaara-san, but a lot of the strain came from my own technique. Opening the gates of the lotus is always dangerous, that is why so few shinobi learn how to do it."

Gaara nodded his understanding.

"I regret to inform you that my next fight will be against Haruno Sakura-san," he said, feeling the need to tell the boy this.

Lee's smiling face fell. "The blossom of Konoha," he said sadly. "She rejected me before our fight, I wonder if it would be different now. Ah, but probably not, Gai-sensei says that everybody has a 'type' of person they look at. Sakura-san doesn't seem inclined to look at me in any way but friendship."

"And what so attracted you to my genin Lee-kun?" Fukurou asked, bringing a vase for Gaara to put his flower in.

"I like green eyes, I suppose," Lee admitted, his smile coming back as he briefly locked eyes with Gaara before turning to look at Fukurou as he answered her. "And nice smiles, even if they're rare."

"Green eyes aren't exactly plentiful," Fukurou pointed out.

Lee shrugged carefully and turned back to smile at Gaara.

"There is only one of all of us," the boy said.

_Never mind that people often considered him a clone of Maito Gai_, Fukurou thought to herself with a smile as she watched them.

~oOo~

"Naruto-chan, Sasuke-chan," Fukurou said at breakfast. "I am deeply impressed with how graciously you both lost to my genin in the preliminaries, but I have a question."

The two boys gulped and turned to look at her. This didn't sound like it was going to be good, and she had cut her meditation short that morning, for reasons not yet explained. She was always irritable when her meditation was cut short.

"Why wasn't it harder?"

"Um," Naruto offered, "maybe because you're the best there is at training genin?"

Fukurou nodded. "Possibly, after all, no one from your team won against their opponents Naruto-chan, but Sasuke-chan was the only person on his team to not also win, though both of your losses were quite close, perhaps because I give send you to do more training when you get home from your time with your teams."

"You would slander my teaching methods?" Kakashi asked, hamming up how hurt he was, as he appeared in the door.

"I remember having to give you advice once before Kakashi-kun," Fukurou answered. "You're the copy-nin, a battlefield shinobi, teaching is not your forte."

"Ah, you're probably right," Kakashi said. "You usually are after all."

"I trained my genin hard, and then gave them a relaxing reward just before I sent them home, so that they would think happily of training and be keen for more. I made everything a competition, so that they would try to best their team mates the next time. I love them, but I am not soft on them," she stated firmly.

"Sasuke and Naruto are strong, stronger than many were at their age before them," Kakashi pointed out.

"But the present, and the future, are what must concern them now," Fukurou answered sharply.

"Fukurou-san, can't we rest and just enjoy ourselves for this week?" Naruto pleaded.

Fukurou's face fell into the most deadpan expression, the most utterly displeased and "you're kidding, right?" look anybody had ever seen on her face. It wasn't angry, it was simply disbelieving.

"No, Naruto-chan, you may not."

~oOo~

"I think Haku is getting the hang of having Kankuro for a boyfriend," Temari snickered to Tenten as she escorted the still sore kunoichi to the women's bathhouse and spa at the end of the day, when she had been released from the hospital.

Tenten giggled back.

"They're so cute together, but what will become of Gaara-san if you and Kankuro both have boyfriends here? He'll be left out," Tenten said.

Temari stopped short a moment. She hadn't thought of that.

"Well, we'll just have to find a way to make long-distance relationships work for a while," Temari said with a sigh. Then another thought occurred to her. "I _don't_ have a boyfriend here!" she objected.

Tenten laughed. "Then what about Shikamaru-kun?"

"That depends on if he wins his fights or not, I won't date some weakling."


	23. Chapter 23

When Team 9 arrived at the training grounds, Team 7 was already there with Kakashi, Fukurou-sensei, and Sasuke.

"Ah! Welcome!" Fukurou said, smiling brightly when she spotted them. "Did you find any interesting ninjutsu that you wanted to work on today?"

Hinata nodded, Shikamaru shrugged, and Sakura blushed.

"One of you forgot I see," Fukurou said, raising an eyebrow at Sakura. "That's no good, you're fighting Gaara-san, he would be most insulted if you weren't prepared to fight him seriously."

"Th-there's one that Shizune-sensei showed me that I would like to try," Sakura offered, thinking quickly.

Fukurou nodded. "Good, now as you can see, Sasuke-chan and Team 7 are joining us for training today. As none of them passed the preliminaries, I thought I would help their sensei with their training," the smile on her face was not entirely nice at that moment. "Well, what are you waiting for?" she teased at her own genin a little sharply. There would be no slacking off this week.

The genin moved off to safe distances from each other and, as they had yesterday, moved through their training in silence except as their jutsu required. They were shinobi, the rest of the world made noise, they were the shadows.

Shikamaru's techniques took this idea as an ideal. He melted into the ground and literally _became_ a shadow, he moved to Fukurou-san and attacked her shadow, knowing better than to interrupt anybody else's training.

This attack was not so much physical. It was originally a stealth jutsu, used for infiltration, but with a little tweaking, Shikamaru could also use it to create 'phantom pains' in his opponents. By stabbing a part of the shadow, he caused pain to that part of the shadow's owner, and while they were distracted with that, he could emerge and attack physically. Or he could simply emerge from the shadow of a rock or tree without warning. It was versatile that way.

A niggling twinge in her calf, like a cramp, was all the warning that Fukurou had before Shikamaru popped up in front of her, aiming his foot at her face.

It was enough, and she caught the sandal in time, leaning back and throwing him over her head back to where he was supposed to be practising his ninjutus, rather than his sneak attacks.

"Good, next!" she yelled after him.

"You're a slave driver," Sasuke muttered.

"Troublesome sensei," Shikamaru moaned, standing up and moving onto his next ninjutsu.

"Elemental ninjutsu!" Fukurou yelled, having heard him, and smirking at it. She had been wondering where that word had gone for a while, as she hadn't heard it recently.

They all turned to look at her, as though wanting to beg off, but they knew better. They had been meditating since almost their first day, learning to understand and grip all of their chakras. Their elemental affinities were part of that.

Hinata formed her wind dragon. It was an almost invisible attack except for the chakra that lined it and defined it. She had found a way to fly using this jutsu if she wanted to, but it had the problem of costing her chakra. The wind dragon tore through the trees as it ejected from her, an excellent initial hit, but certainly neither stealthy, nor subtle. Once it was complete she had full control over it, but it was that moment of while it was being formed – it was a weakness in the jutsu, one she had not yet figured out how to overcome. If her opponent dodged the first blast, then she would be vulnerable until the dragon was freed from her body and complete, awaiting her command.

She moved on. She had other wind-based jutsu to work on.

Sakura, who had been choking slightly as she attempted to breathe poison as Shizune had done, gladly substituted the toxic smog for pure water. She could use her water-based chakra for cleaning wounds, or for creating them. Right now, she was glad to take a sip from the whip of water she was wielding. It too was a dragon jutsu, but a much smaller one than Hinata's. This one took directions from the way Sakura held it's tail in her hand, and she was able to throw it around like a whip that had claws and teeth at the other end. It was nothing like Tsunade-sensei or Shizune-sensei had taught her, but Fukurou-sensei was her first sensei, her team leader, and the one who had taught her this jutsu. She was proud to know this jutsu, just as she was proud to know all that she did of healing and poisons. She would not just be a medic tag-along to her team who had to be protected, she would be able to fight and protect her team as well.

Knowing how to heal was great, knowing how to prevent those precious to her from needing healing was also very important to her.

Sakura dismissed the watery creature, and moved on.

Shikamaru's first element, apart from the clan ability with shadows, was the earth. It sat, it waited, it watched and bided its time. For what, he might never know, but in his case, it was there to bury his opponents in until only their head could be seen.

Essentially, their training for the first three hours was drilling in what they had learned already, and practising new jutsu they wanted to master. They were able to manage it themselves with just a little direction from Fukurou.

Team 7 and Sasuke, however, were being drilled like they were in boot-camp. Crawling, climbing, water-walking, jumping, and Fukurou had forced weights onto them while Kakashi simply stood by, learning how to teach from her. She had them break from physical training every twenty minutes to practice jutsu – both familiar and new – for ten minutes before they were back to sit ups, push ups, and running around until their legs burned and then, when they were at the end of their ropes, she made them practice their jutsu again.

"Team 9, time's up! Twenty laps around the village! You set yourselves a time of one hour to run around it ten times yesterday, you will _not_ take longer today!" Fukurou yelled.

"Hai Fukurou-sensei!" They snapped sharply with a salute, and then they were off. They would need chakra to make that time, and they had just been using their chakra for three hours worth of powerful and taxing ninjutsu. They would sleep very soundly that night, and they would build serious chakra reserves by stretching themselves so much.

Or they could just die. This was becoming the more popular view among the genin now being trained by Fukruou-sensei – including Team 7 and her brother Sasuke.

~oOo~

Neji was undergoing a very different type of training to the genin under Fukurou. He began by spending the first half of his day with the sensei of the clan, and in the afternoons he went to subject himself to Gai-sensei's training methods. Crazy as the man was, he was also a jounin.

His form was perfect, the clan sensei told him. His gentle fist was unsurpassed. They could teach him nothing more.

He snorted at that. Of course they couldn't. They had spent several generations restricting and restraining which had removed several powerful techniques from their teaching. He knew this because he also knew that Hinata was studying the forgotten styles of their family. He didn't know why he had expected anything of them in the first place.

To counter Hinata, he worked harder with Gai, creating _new_ styles and ways to attack. Of course, once he had defeated her – and he was not going to allow the idea that she would win, even if it _was_ possible – he would be fighting Gaara of the Sand. That he could be fighting Haruno Sakura was unlikely enough that he did not even consider it. He had seen how Gaara fought, very clearly, and it was dangerous. Sakura seemed more inclined to simply slug at her opponent, if her fight with Yamanaka Ino was any indication, and it likely was. Even if by some strange happening, she _did_ defeat Gaara, he would not lose to such a basic fighting style.

~oOo~

Shino and Kiba were surprised when Sasuke was absent that first day of training before the third and final exam.

Kurenai smirked at them. "Sasuke-kun's sister is disappointed with his performance," she told them. "She is training him."

"Kurenai-sensei, what training will we be doing then?" Kiba asked.

"I'm glad you asked Kiba-kun!" Kurenai stated cheerfully. That, the boys decided, was _not_ a good sign. "I've recruited a couple of jounin who know more about your specialities than I do, and modelled our training program after the one Fukurou-san is putting her brother and team through."

"Which means?" Shino asked.

"Which means you will be working with your partners _exclusively_ for three hours every morning before we spend an hour on other jutsu you can use. After that you will do basic physical training, and I mean _basic_. Sit ups, push ups, and I'll set up a spot for pull ups. After you have completed a minimum fifty of each, you will be doing laps around a little obstacle course we have set up just for you," Kurenai paused here to point at the course. "After that, we will move onto taijutsu with your partners. Shino-kun, I know you can stand still and fight with your bugs, but standing still is not always going to be an option, so _no_, you may not skip that part."

Shino nodded solemnly.

"This is gonna be great," Kiba said, getting pumped. "It's going to kill us, but it's going to be great. Eh Akamaru, we'll show everybody what we're made of!"

"I'm glad you're so excited Otouto," a new voice said.

"H-Hana-Onee?" Kiba exclaimed, looking around for his older sister.

"Well, Kaa-san is busy on another mission, and I owed a favour to Kurenai-san," Hana explained, as she walked up the slight hill, the Haimaru Brothers – her triplet companions – right there with her. "Though, I think we're going to enjoy teaching you and Akamaru-chan new ways to fight as a team. You've really only got a few tricks, haven't you?" she said, poking him in the head.

"Hana-Onee!"

"Shino," a male voice said.

"Tou-san," Shino answered, turning and bowing. "It shall be an honour to study under you."

Aburame Shibi nodded. "Your sensei suggested that you were ready for the next level of our family's training. She is most astute, I was going to begin it after the exams, but I see that you are just as ready now," the man said, the barest hint of a proud smile in his voice as he spoke to his son, and the heir of his clan.

~oOo~

Gaara was meditating. Temari watched him for a few minutes, but there was no change in him, and actually, she was beginning to wonder about it. Screw pretending that she wasn't worried about her baby brother. He'd been meditating so much lately, and he was changing. For the better, yes, and she was glad that she could hold him now without having to be afraid of Shukaku lashing out.

It was the day before the last part of the exam was due to begin and Kankuro and Haku were sparring a short way away from the meditating youngest. When Kankuro dodged one of Haku's senbon and it had come flying towards Gaara, the sand had not moved to protect him as it had always done.

His hand shot out and caught it before it hit him, but the sand had not moved. It _always_ moved.

"Gaara?" Temari asked, truly concerned. "Are you alright?"

He sighed deeply, bowing his head. "Thank you," he whispered, and Temari got the distinct impression he wasn't talking to her at that moment. He looked up at her. "Yes Temari-nee, I'm fine."

She jolted slightly, her heart aching suddenly. He'd never called her 'nee' before. Never once. It sounded so good to hear from him. Her little brother, at last he was her little brother and not just some shell for a monster to hide in.

Temari fell to her knees in front of him, tears almost in her eyes. "Gaara, my Gaara-nii," she whispered, and hugged him.

"Temari?" Gaara asked, confused though he returned the embrace.

She sniffed and shook her head before releasing him to look in his eyes.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I'm the one in control of the sand now," he answered. "Not Shukaku. Temari-nee, I'm in complete control right now."

The tears she had been holding back escaped, and her wide smile became a wet one. She wanted to dance and shout to the world and their father that Gaara was _not_ a monster, and he had found a way to control it! At the very least she could tell Kankuro.

"I think we should hold off the celebration until after the exams though Temari," Gaara cautioned as he stood. "One senbon is hardly proof. The trial will be against an opponent who is trying to defeat me."

Temari nodded, reluctantly agreeing. She knew he was right, after all. Once the exams were over, they would celebrate, and if Konohagakure never saw another celebration like it, she would not be surprised.

~oOo~

Fukurou told her genin to come to the Uchiha estate half an hour before dawn on the morning of the third exam. Sakura and Shikamaru bemoaned the loss of a little extra sleep when she told them, and Hinata looked somewhat defeated at the idea, but she just smiled.

"No, it's not extra training," she promised them, ruffling the hair of Shikamaru and Sakura comfortingly. "Just some meditation and, if you feel improvement from where you were a week ago, then I'll watch you fly for a while to help you loosen up before the exam, and make you all breakfast."

That perked them all up. They hadn't even had the energy to _think_ of flying for the past week, and at the mention of it felt keenly how much they had missed it.

"I'm not evil remember," Fukurou reminded them with a chuckle.

"Hm?" Kakashi asked, having heard that comment as he finished dismissing his genin.

Fukurou laughed. "Well, not completely evil," she corrected, appreciating the joke. "All the competing genin are invited," she told her team, and dismissed them.

~oOo~

Gaara still did not sleep, and was meditating in the yard when Fukurou emerged from her room for her daily share of the same, dragging the exhausted Naruto after her.

She had asked Gaara the first time she found him in the yard if he had spent any part of the night in his room, but since his explanation that, because of Shukaku, he enjoyed feeling the moon on his back, she had not questioned it again, simply hugging him and providing a warm poncho in case he felt the nights too cold for him.

Of course, part of her knew that nights in Fire were a great deal milder than in Wind, which had extreme heat in the day and icy temperatures through the night. She still wanted to be sure he could be comfortable while under her care.

"They'll be here soon then," Gaara said quietly as she and Naruto sat beside him.

"Should be," Fukurou confirmed., her voice also soft, slipping into the gentle murmur that it always did when she was deep in her meditation. Naruto simply closed his eyes and got on with it, too tired to communicate yet.

Hinata was the first to arrive, with Neji not far behind. It occurred to Fukurou that they had probably woken at the same time, but Neji had needed more time to wrap his hands and tidy his hair before leaving the estate than Hinata's simpler style. Shino arrived next, and had apparently stopped by the Haruno house to collect Sakura. Temari emerged from her room, tying up her last bunch of hair, just as Shikamaru slouched through the gate. They sat down together. Kiba and Akamaru were the last to arrive, but they were located the furthest from the Uchiha estate, and from the way Kiba was yawning, and Akamaru was still sleeping in the boy's arms, she guessed he hadn't completely woken up before coming.

Beneath her eyelids, Fukurou activated her third sharingan tomoe, and slipped the simple suggestion of wakefulness into the minds of the sleepy genin now sitting around her. Those around her who had been slumping, sat up straight. It was a handy trick, and one she had developed for her own personal use after she had accidentally time-turned back to the Gryffindoor common room and missed out on the cheering charms class. She needed to sleep, and too much time-turning really set the body-clock out of whack, but that she hadn't even been aware enough to send a bunshin to take the lesson while she caught up on one of her basic requirements for continued health had proved the need for this technique.

They all meditated until dawn uninterrupted, at which time Itachi, Sasuke, Haku and Kankuro joined them. Zabuza walked past them at that same time, intent on his own form of meditation – kata. He's tried the just sit and breathe version, but had discovered more recently that if he wanted to consider something deeply, he needed the repetitive motions to bring him to that mindless, deeply considering state.

Zabuza was, as usual, the first to break off his meditation. He was no longer an active field shinobi of the Mist, going out to kill people all the time, so he didn't need to be as instantly deadly these days, though he still liked to be. In Konoha, he spent most of his days teaching Academy students who were interested how to use swords that were as large as themselves during the school day, after which time he was being very slowly processed for ANBU. He was a bit put off by the slowness of the procedure, but actually he liked the snotty-nosed kids, they were a nice balance for all the ANBU training and paperwork he also had to put up with.

And of course, he enjoyed cooking breakfast in the mornings, summoning Uchihas and guests from wherever their minds were, with the smell of good food.

The sanin and Shizune were the first to the breakfast table, shortly followed by the male Uchihas – both by blood and adopted – and where Haku went, Kankuro seemed to follow these days.

Zabuza was surprised that the rest of the genin did not come in with the Uchihas and Kankuro, but when he looked out, he saw Fukurou was speaking to them while they continued to meditate. They wouldn't come in until she had finished, but as he watched she seemed to have said her final words of the meditation session to them.

When all rose but her, he figured it was time out for the genin, and he served them breakfast as they sat down to eat. Most of them hungry, a couple of them utterly ravenous. Akamaru had woken up at some point as well.

Once they had eaten, Naruto led the way to the 'broom closet' and the genin took themselves for a fly in a different part of the estate while Fukurou continued her meditation. Rule three of the Uchiha estate: do not disturb Fukurou's meditation.


	24. Chapter 24

Kankuro and Team 7 sat with the Uchihas as they watched the examination. Kurenai had joined them too, though she was there to watch Asuma managing it as much as she was to watch her genin. Gai arrived almost late with Tenten and Lee. Lee was the main reason, still heavily bandaged from his fight against Gaara. Mobile, but in the most minimal sense of the word, though he was finally off the pain medication. Tsunade was also escorting the boy, and Shizune and Jiraiya had followed her, so they all sat together as one great lump of genin who didn't get this far, and their sensei.

There was even some family about. Inuzuka Hana and Aburame Shibi had taken the time to come to the examination to watch the kids. Fukurou was surprised, but pleased, to see Hyuuga Hyashi had come to the event as well, though if she had to guess, she would say that Hanabi had probably been the one to drag him there, if the way she was tugging him towards their seats was anything to go by.

Shikamaru's fight against Kiba was the first one.

"Oy, Shikamaru! Akamaru and me are going to take you down with just one hit!" Kiba announced as he walked down the steps on the side of the stadium.

The genin had been divided up so that opponents did not have to wait with each other just before their battles, preventing pre-match intimidation to some extent.

"Then I'd better not let you hit me," Shikamaru answered with a small smirk.

Asuma looked between the two a moment before ordering them to begin.

Kiba launched straight into it, double-teaming with Akamaru to become whirl-winds of power, throwing themselves around the arena.

Shikamaru ducked quickly and sank himself into the dirt beneath his feet, buried below, but safe enough. He could feel Kiba's movements through the vibrations, and as Fukurou-sensei and Kakashi-sensei had taught him, he pulled the other boy into the dirt up to his neck, propelling himself up with the same momentum.

Akamaru's instant response was to start digging to get his master and partner out.

Shikamaru picked him up, carefully, avoiding getting bitten by the little guy, and stroked him gently.

"Eh, eh, Akamaru, I'll get Kiba out myself if he'll concede the fight," Shikamaru assured the puppy kindly, smirking down at his friend. "It's a lot of dirt to try and dig through without knowing the right jutsu."

Kiba growled, but conceded the defeat. He couldn't get himself out, and his partner was captured. He knew when he had lost.

"I thought for sure that would get you, Shikamaru," Kiba said, once he was freed and brushing himself off. "You were always so lazy in class, not interested in exerting yourself."

Shikamaru laughed cynically.

"Fukurou-sensei _makes_ us exert ourselves," Shikamaru answered, handing Akamaru back to the dog-nin.

Temari's fight with Shino was next, and went much as it had done with Tenten before, though she had to concede that her attacks were weaker, due to all of Shino's bugs that were eating at her chakra. She hadn't stopped to brush them off when they came at her, but kept up the wind, battering Shino until he was unable to stand, before dropping him onto her fan.

"Don't worry about it Shino-san," she told him with a smirk. "I think there's a certain pink-haired girl who wants to be your medic, once she's had her fight with my Otouto."

"I want to watch that fight," Shino managed to get out.

"Yes alright," Temari agreed, carrying him up the stairs so that he could watch the next fight.

"Thank you."

Sakura stepped lightly on the ground as she approached Asuma and Gaara.

"Here we go then," she said, extending a hand to Gaara.

"Good luck," he answered, taking her hand firmly and shaking it once. "You will need it."

Sakura smiled weakly as her hand was dropped, but when Asuma told them to start she did not advance any immediate or direct attack. She did, however, multiply. Suddenly there were ten, rather that only one, and they jumped out, scattering and surrounding Gaara. One, unlikely to be the original, remained where it had been before.

The likely fake Sakura threw a kunai at Gaara, directly, obviously.

He caught it between two fingers.

"No sand?" the Sakura asked, surprised.

"I want to try something new, see how long into a fight I can restrain the sand from protecting me, see how well I can protect myself," Gaara answered.

"Might not be the best time, but okay," the Sakura shrugged, then she threw another kunai, which Gaara caught between the fingers of his other hand. The senbon she launched shortly after the second kunai had no hand waiting for it.

Gaara threw one of the kunai he had caught, deflecting it.

"Seriously now," Gaara said, frowning slightly.

"Your turn then," Sakura answered, arching a brow and folding her arms.

Gaara's form flickered, and three kunai, one of them Sakura's, were flying at her. She jumped over, snagging them around her fingers by their rings as she flipped.

"I thought you said serious, Gaara-san," Sakura said with a smile, showing off her caught prize before flinging the two that were not hers to the ground just in front of the red head, jumping back herself as she watched the exploding tags burn down rapidly.

Gaara jumped back as well just as the tags went off. He was surprised and alarmed to feel a pair of arms wrapping around him. It was a hug, gentle and female.

"I can end this fight right now if you like, Gaara-san," Sakura said. "I can hit pressure points, I can fill you with senbon, I can dissect or pulverise you. I know how, Gaara-san, and I do not like being underestimated." Her arms squeezed around him slightly. "I know that you _could_ release the demon you have spent so much time conquering, and that I would die quickly if you did, but right now you are human, and I can fight that."

Sakura wrapped a water jutsu around Gaara's body, a binding, and the other nine of her appeared to help hold him.

"Gaara of the Sand, you will take me seriously right now, or I will neuter you," she said flatly, one knee planted in his stomach and a sharp looking dagger – and not a standard shinobi kunai – in one hand.

Asuma paled at those words, and the girl's obvious intention to carry out her threat.

Sand erupted around Gaara, dispelling the bunshin and throwing the real Sakura into the air.

"If I cannot get close, then I cannot win, and once Gaara is serious and uses his sand, then no one can get close to him," Sakura said quietly, approaching the now standing boy, the wicked dagger still in her hand.

A shell of sand grew around Gaara, a sphere of impenetrable, malicious granules that spiked out sharply when Sakura tapped at it with her weapon.

Sakura nodded and stepped back.

"Examiner-san, I no longer can win this fight, but I would like the chance to try and pierce this shell before I concede," she told him.

Asuma just nodded, guarding his own pride from the young girl.

Sakura nodded back, and turned her attention to Gaara's defence. She summoned two whip-like water dragons and used them to lash at opposite sides of the ball. When the sand there grew thick to defend and oppose her attack, Sakura brought up a senbon she had been keeping in her throat, as Shizune had taught her to. Spitting the weapon at exactly the centre of the ball, equidistant from her other two attacks, she saw the sand shatter slightly and the senbon was caught between Gaara's fingers within.

The pinkette smiled.

"Examiner-san, I surrender the fight," Sakura stated with a smile. She knew that Fukurou-san would not be impressed that she had quit the fight, but she had a good, logical reason to do so. The best she could do was get a weapon inside the defence, but it had been caught, and as she had been required to _spit_ the weapon out, it couldn't have been anything as effective as a bomb, an exploding tag, or a poison-covered senbon. It wouldn't have been possible while still being safe for her. That she was able to pierce Gaara's sand defences at all, to Sakura, was a great achievement.

As she shook hands with Gaara again, Sakura was most pleased to be handed her senbon back and receive a small smile from him. No hard feelings. The bonus was that she had plenty of chakra left to help Shino-kun to heal.

Neji and Hinata had the next fight.

Every person in the stadium shifted, purposefully or unconsciously, to the edges of their seats, hoping to see better what this fight would be like.

Asuma gave the word and jumped back.

Neji fell into his gentle fist stance, the veins in his face inflamed with the Hyuuga bloodline, the byakugan.

"Attack me, Neji-nii-san," Hianta said firmly, shifting into a stance that looked like gentle fist to those who had not been raised to it as the Hyuuga had, and that her team recognised as her subtle knife stance.

Neji nodded and ran at her. His hands flew, speeding at where he could see her chakra pathways, intent on blocking them with his jabs. He knew from fighting Lee that it was nearly impossible to dodge or block his punches.

Hinata was doing it though, as calmly as if she were simply dancing with him. It threw him off when she smiled gently at him, and said "Try harder, Neji-nii-san."

He clenched his teeth and became a whirlwind. He could hit up to a hundred and twenty points at once with this technique, he _would_ hit at _least_ one of Hinata's.

She stepped back, bending further until her hands were on the ground behind her and flipped over, chakra in her feet forming a brief shield to Neji's attacks, humming in the air where she had allowed it to remain suspended as she twisted. Slicing her hand through the air towards where her chakra residue hung, she sent a blade through the air at Neji. Her first attack.

Neji kept up his attack though he felt the hit land on his arm. It surprised him, but he would not allow it to halt him. He would not stop until he had completed the attack.

Hinata activated her byakugan now, and wished for a moment that her eyes could slow down what they saw as the Uchiha eyes did, but she dismissed the thought quickly. She had what she had, and she would make it work, just as she had learned under Fukurou-sensei. Neji's chakra, in this attack form, was concentrated in his arms and his eyes, perhaps a strength, perhaps a weakness.

He jabbed out at her heart, an incapacitating move if it landed, and they both knew it.

Hinata frowned, and caught the hand.

"Oh no, Neji-nii-san, I'm not going to just let you do that," she said firmly, reaching up with her other hand to tap the inside of Neji's elbow.

Neji's eyes widened before narrowing, he wasn't going to roll over and allow this either. He snapped his hand up to stop her.

Their hands locked, Hinata smiled and deactivated her byakugan, surprising Neji until he felt her knee in his stomach.

He folded over and his hands were freed, allowing him to clutch at his abused abdomen, only to feel a leg smashing into his side. Despite the pain, Neji forced himself to recover quickly and turn to attack his cousin.

"You have excellent technique, Neji-nii-san," Hinata complimented. "You aren't used to getting hit though, we're going to have to work on that some time."

Neji smiled weakly as Hinata stood there, smiling politely at him. It was slightly eerie actually. He straightened and took his stance.

Hinata began to form seals, and Neji charged again. His charge was halted by a wind dragon, whose path was in exact alignment with where he stood. Hinata watched as her justu forced him into the far wall, slamming him there before, completed, it wrapped around him and held him in the air, suspended and unconscious. Gently, she had the dragon lay him on the ground in front of Asuma, who nodded.

"Winner, Hyuuga Hinata."

~oOo~

A break was allowed for teachers to collect students who had not passed, and for congratulations on passing the first round.

The Hokage approached Haruno Sakura at this time as well, a scroll in hand.

"Haruno Sakura," he said solemnly. "Though you did not win your fight, you displayed good tactics, judgement, and an excellent spirit. Your attendance to your fellow shinobi, Aburame Shino, after your fight is also recognised as an excellent display of loyalty. Welcome, Haruno Sakura, to the ranks of Konohagakure's chuunin."

Sakura's eyes grew wide, her mouth hanging open. It took a nudge from Fukurou to get her to snap out of it and, with a bow, she accepted the scroll.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," she said quietly. "I shall strive to always be an asset to my village."

He nodded and left. He had talked with the Aburame and Inuzuka family members who were present, and decided that the genin from their clans were also worthy to become chuunin – they had the scrolls for Kiba and Shino. He had only Neji of the Hyuugas to speak with yet, and a scroll to present to him.

~oOo~

Shikamaru stepped down from one side of the arena, considering how he could fight Temari. He liked her, but he didn't like the idea of giving away victory.

The first thing she did when the call to begin the battle came was to get off the ground. She had seen how Shikamaru pulled Kiba under, and she wasn't one to engage in close combat as Sasuke had in the preliminaries, so she wasn't going to try something that had failed for someone else.

"Ah," Shikamaru called. "I'm not going to use the same trick twice in one day, that would be boring."

Temari frowned, and while she came closer to the ground, she didn't land.

"Besides, Fukurou-sensei would give me hell for being lazy," he added with a smirk.

Temari smirked as well and touched down, immediately bringing up her fan in the attack.

Shikamaru hit the wall and became a dark patch on it – now only his shadow. The stealth technique quickly employed to save him from the pain of the impact.

"Shikamaru-kun?" Temari called sweetly. "Are you alright?"

Shikamaru emerged from his shadow. "Yeah, but doing that so quickly left my shoulders a little numb from where I should have impacted."

Temari blinked in surprised. She'd expected it had been some kind of substitution or transportation jutsu, but he'd actually just... she wasn't sure what he'd just.

Shikamaru emerged from the wall and, as soon as he took a step forward, was forming the seals of his oldest, most familiar jutsu. His shadow stretched out, racing across the ground to attach to Temari's and catch her in the shadow bind.

She spotted it and ran back away from it until she discovered its range, drawing a line in the dirt.

Shikamaru sighed, retreated his shadow, and the fight continued.

It almost ended in a draw when Shikamaru _did_ finally capture Temari's shadow, but instead he ceded the match, saying that he was too low on chakra to keep going.

Temari was surprised, and so was Asuma who was refereeing the match, as Shikamaru, despite his claim, did have the upper hand at that moment. Still, he had quit, and that was that.

The Hokage gave him a scroll of recognition as well as the winning Temari, marking Shikamaru as a chuunin of Konohagakure, and Temari a chuunin of Sukagakure as soon as she presented the scroll to her own Kage, who was absent despite having accepted the invitation to attend months ago – a sad proof that the now dead Orochimaru had killed him and taken his place.

~oOo~

Hinata and Gaara bowed to each other as they prepared to face off, and Asuma gave the word to fight.

Unlike in her fight with Neji, Hinata took the initiative to attack. She charged, kunai drawn, extending the blades with a wind jutsu.

Gaara blocked with his arm, shielded from harm by a guard made of sand, though it cracked under the force of Hinata's strike.

Hinata jumped back and activated her byakugan, observing the two different swirls of chakra that circled throughout Gaara's chakra network. She had a plan for fighting Gaara from the moment she had seen Sakura admit defeat to him. Even if, like Sakura, she was not able to defeat him, she would still try. Falling exactly into the gentle fist style, she advanced against Gaara once more.

She was jabbing sharply in her family's practised style. Gaara blocked most of her blows, but one managed to land, and he staggered, surprise etched on his face.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"I have begun to close off the chakra pathways," Hinata answered, not letting any of the spectators know that it was the pathways of the demon contained in Gaara that she was attacking, but he would be able to feel the difference.

Gaara nodded his understanding, and took a basic taijutsu stance. He would let her block out Shukaku, if she was able, and then he would fight with only his own chakra. He wouldn't let it be easy though, it would be disrespectful to her, as Sakura had practically yelled in his face during their battle, though her voice had been soft and purring at the time.

The battle continued.

In the end, both were exhausted, and when Hinata reached up a hand, gently poking Gaara in the forehead, he slumped to the ground before she sunk to her knees as well.

"Examiner-san," she called weakly. "Gaara-san as passed out, and I would like to do likewise very much right now."

"Winner, Hyuuga Hinata."

The Hokage awarded both the genin with their chuunin recognition scrolls.


	25. Chapter 25

To say that there was a party at the Uchiha estate that night would be an understatement of the event. Fukurou had pulled out all the stops, with a little help from the other Uchihas of course. Magical displays were set up among the games, lights, tables of food and drink, and the occasional fireworks platform.

It was a festival the genin and new chuunin arrived to, and when Hanabi arrived between Neji and Hinata, her face lit up, as was right for children when faced with such a sight.

"Well, Hanabi-san is an unexpected, but welcome, visitor tonight," Fukurou said, smiling as she greeted the two older Hyuuga children, indicating the youngest as she ran directly to a display of fish that were swimming around in their element, though the water was clearly not contained as it floated, changing shape fluidly as the fish swam around. "Congratulations," she added, beaming at them.

"Thank you sensei," Hinata said sincerely, embracing her teacher before being waved on to join her excited little sister.

"We almost were unable to come," Neji said, once he had greeted the woman. "Hyashi-sama was most reluctant to permit his daughters to visit you, and not understanding of my desire to visit you with them. It was the word of Hinata-san's mother that permitted us. She said that she was proud of her, and that Hinata-san should be allowed to celebrate her achievements with whomever she pleased. Hyashi-sama said nothing after that, and we took it as permission."

Fukurou laughed; it seemed that she had gotten under the skin of the great Hyashi. A time for celebration indeed, even if they weren't her genin team any more.

Kakashi called for everybody's attention just before the fireworks were to be set off, and pulled Fukurou to the centre of the garden where they could see everyone and likewise be seen by all.

"Congratulations to everybody who passed," he said, smiling happily beneath his mask, "and to those of you who didn't congratulations on surviving the drilling you got in the lead up to the exams."

Team 7 and Sasuke laughed weakly, while everybody else laughed heartily, those who were drunk added a giggle on the end as they nursed their drinks.

"Now, some of you may recall how at a dinner just before the exams started, I asked for advice on how to propose to our lovely Fukurou-sama, who has been fortunate enough, and strict enough, to have all of her genin make chuunin in their first examination," Kakashi continued.

Several heads nodded and a few expectant smiles erupted.

Kakashi got down on one knee, holding onto Fukurou's hand.

"I know you're the head of your clan, but could you maybe accept lowly little me as your husband Fukurou?" Kakashi asked. "I'll even take the name Uchiha, rather than you becoming a Hatake, if it means you'll say yes," he added.

Wolf whistles and cat calls broke out all around them.

Fukurou smiled, widely, hugely, and nodded.

Itachi started setting off the fireworks – some of which had come from the first trip to Diagon Alley and were even more impressive than the locally bought ones.

When the fireworks were over, Fukurou ushered everybody into the spare rooms of her family complex, bidding yawning faces pleasant dreams.

She was just sweeping up the streamers before she would allow herself to sleep for the night when she heard the distinctive _thump_ of two civilians landing behind her and felt the tingle of magic in the air. Turning, she saw Fred and George standing up from where they had landed.

Gaara had dropped down behind them when he saw them land as well, kunai drawn.

She waved gently to indicate they weren't a threat.

"We're really sorry for dropping in like this," Fred said.

"But there _is_ an emergency," George finished.

Fukurou nodded her acceptance and sighed, though Gaara was clearly confused, having not understood the twins, as they were speaking English.

"I have to see my boss before I will be allowed to come, and it's several hours until morning. I'll show you somewhere to sleep for now," she answered them in the same language, setting aside the rake she had been using to sweep with and guiding them to the two rooms furthest from the sleeping shinobi.

"Sleep sounds -"

"- heavenly. We haven't -"

"- had the chance to sleep properly -"

"- for days. It's been -"

"- too risky."

"This emergency _is_ able to wait until morning isn't it?" she asked, concerned.

"Yes," they answered at the same time. "But probably not much longer than that."

"Fukurou-san?" Gaara asked when she had returned.

"Friends I made on a mission in a very far away country. They're mischievous, but not dangerous," she assured him, adding privately to herself '_to shinobi at least_'. "We'll see what they need in the morning."

~oOo~

When Fukurou arrived at the breakfast table after her meditation with two identical carrot-tops who were mumbling in a different language, there was a general reaction of surprise and wariness. The three Uchihas, Kurenai and Kakashi, who had been to Diagon Alley and the Weasley Wheezes shop, and were able to recognise these two figures, were equally surprised to see the wizards in Konoha.

Fukurou cast a translation charm and conducted the introductions while serving the twins their breakfast.

"So what's the emergency you've got?" she asked once they had transfigured their chopsticks into forks and had finally managed to get some food into their stomachs.

"Dumbledore," they answered.

"It looks like Mouldy-warts wasn't the only one to have bits of his soul anchored in different places," George said. "Albus was doing it too."

"And it seems he's not quite so pleased about what's happened over the past year with our boy Harry, and so he's decided to not stay dead," Fred added, frowning.

"The Ministry is shot to pieces in the last month since he showed up again too," George interjected, fielding a possible question before it could be asked.

"There are still a few of us with the training to fight off powerful dark wizards, but most the magical world still hasn't recovered enough for another one so soon after the last bugger," Fred explained.

"And none of us ever thought we'd have to fight our dear old Headmaster who even Mouldy-warts was edgy about," George finished.

Fukurou sighed and said that she would be back shortly, forming the teleportation jutsu and taking herself to the Hokage Building.

~oOo~

"You are emotionally involved, Uchiha-san, which is not wise for any shinobi."

"I know that Hokage-sama, but I am also the one who knows the place best, and if they have trouble then it could leak across to us."

"I am assigning Team 9 to you for this then, also Hatake Kakashi, whose team will be given to a shinobi called Yamato, who will train the team until you all return."

Fukurou accepted the mission scroll and nodded.

"Hai."

~oOo~

When Fukurou returned to the Uchiha estate, everybody was still eating breakfast and asking the Weasley twins questions about Quidditch, though how the boys had gotten onto that in such a short time, with an emergency looming over their heads, she did not know.

"Team 9, you have a mission. It _could_ last a long time, or be over quickly. Pack and return here as fast as you can," Fukurou said once she had everybody's attention. "Team 7, I'll be taking your sensei on this mission as well, so the Hokage has assigned another shinobi to be your team leader in his absence."

Team 9 and Kakashi stood, nodded and left quickly.

"George, Fred, do you know _what_ Dumbledore is using as his _horcrux_?"

"We know he made five of 'em," George answered first.

"And we know we've busted one already," Fred continued.

"It was a prophecy orb he kept in his office."

"We listened to the prophecy first of course."

"We reckon it was another one about Harry."

"Poor kid flipped."

"Tried to kill himself."

"Ginny's watching him right now, in shifts with Ronny-kins."

"Snape's been working on potions to keep him calm, and McGonagall's been searching through Dumbledore's documents to figure out what the other four _horcrux_ are."

"Right," Fukurou said, putting an end to the back-and-forth that the twins always did without thinking. "We've got two ways of doing this. Kill Dumbledore over and over until he uses up his _horcrux_, or just destroy the items. Do we have any idea of who is still following the old coot?" she asked.

"Our parents," the twins answered unhappily.

"Also Mad Eye and a bunch of other Auroras, and just basically everybody who was an Order member except McGonagall, Snape, Lupin and Tonks."

"Our dear older brothers are busy elsewhere in the world."

"Except Percy, who's busy trying to salvage the Ministry all on his one-some."

"So don't expect help from any other Weasleys on this one to either side."

"Could be sticky then," Fukurou said, pinching at the bridge of her nose while she thought about some of the possible scenarios. She headed to her room to pack, calling to Tsunade as she walked out, "Tsunade-hime, how is Sakura going at bringing the freshly dead _back_?"

"She's got it nearly mastered," the sanin answered, not questioning why she was being asked this right now, but following after. "If the body is very damaged then it's harder, because she has to fix up the body as much as possible, then bring them back and finish healing quickly so that they won't die again from having organs that cannot function. If she has to repeat the process on the same person, the second time will be harder, also if she cannot act within the first five minutes it will be more difficult, and the person will suffer from some minor brain damage, due to lack of oxygen to the brain."

Fukurou nodded. Physical damage was not generally a problem when fighting wizards, at least as far as shinobi considered it. Strange disfigurement completely aside of course. She still remembered that incident when Malfoy had hexed her. She grabbed her broomstick, and those of her team, and headed back to everybody else.

"Sasuke, you remember to train hard, alright? You too Naruto. If I come back and find out that you haven't improved then you're going to be following _my_ training schedule for a month."

"H-_hai_!" the boys yelped, saluting sharply.

"And listen to what Itachi-chan and Zabuza-san tell you, alright?" she added, smiling slightly at their reactions.

Team 9 and Kakashi reappeared.

"Said your goodbyes?" she inquired as she handed over their brooms for them to put in their packs.

Shikamaru and Sakura nodded. Hinata moved to Neji and Hanabi to do so once she had stowed the length of wood.

The Uchihas gathered around Fukurou for a hug. "Love you," she whispered to them, squeezing them back.

"Come back alive Fuu-nee-san," Sasuke insisted fiercely. "I'll never forgive you if you don't."

"I'll come back," she promised, ruffling his hair before turning to her waiting team and clients with a smile. "Let's go."

Fred pulled out the photo of her as Hermione, and she instructed her team to touch it. They all groaned, remembering their only other experience with this sort of travel had not been enjoyable, but did as they were told.

George spoke the keyword, "Weasley," and they were gone.


	26. Chapter 26

The group of seven reappeared in the upper room of Weasley Wheezes with a lurch.

"So much for never having to travel like that again," Kakashi mumbled.

"I did say 'if you never have to go to London again' Kakashi," Fukurou reminded him before turning to her team. "Alright, this is where you get a crash course on magic, and not just the cool stuff I did back home. You remember the stuff I taught you?"

Three heads nodded.

"Good," Fukurou pinched her nose before running the hand through her hair. "We'll stop by Ollivander's and get you wands before we go, I'll teach you how to use them as we find time. Fred," Fukurou said, looking him straight in the eye, "I'm going on the assumption that you _have_ an HQ."

"Hidden all proper and everything," he answered.

"Good. I want you to go there ahead of us, I reckon they aren't ready for any nasty shocks right now, like Hermione back from the dead, so for the sake of not stressing Harry, I'm Owl, a relative of Hermione. I paid Lupin a visit a while ago and used that story, so he'll be able to verify that. It's true enough anyway. Don't try explaining this lot, I'm fairly sure you'll butcher their names if you try," Fukurou said, taking the role of leader in the situation, even though Fred and George were older than her.

Fred nodded and disapparated.

"George, if you will help me with putting translation charms on everybody, we'll go on our way."

George nodded and withdrew his wand.

It was only a matter of minutes, but it made all the difference. They even had local accents, so the only thing marking them as people not immediately from the magical world were, well, the way they looked. The purists would just think that they were 'mudbloods'. She had wanted so slap Malfoy so hard when he said that, she came from a proud clan after all. Okay so lately she'd been filling it with a few social misfits, but they were the toughest misfits she'd ever seen, and of good lineages in their own rights.

"Time to get those wands," Fukurou said with a sigh, gesturing for George to go first. "Follow the orange-haired weedy-man," she ordered.

"Oy!"

Kakashi dropped back to walk with her at the rear of the group. "Will I have to get one of these sticks as well?" he asked.

Fukurou giggled at the idea of Kakashi waving a wand around, dressed in robes or bent over a cauldron. "No Kakashi, no you won't, unless you really want to, but for the sake of this mission, as well as I have started to teach them magic anyway, it would be useful for them to have the wands to conduct magic through for more regular spells. You will not need one."

Kakashi visibly relaxed.

~oOo~

Hinata was curious but tentative as she picked up the first wand Mr Ollivander offered to her. She had seen the things Fukurou-sensei did with her wand, quite different from the things she had taught them already, and she wanted to try some of the fancy spells for herself. With this, she could have the ability to learn how.

"Well, give it a wave," the man said.

"Oh," Hinata blushed, and flicked it as she had seen Fukurou-sensei do when she was using that cleaning charm. The top of the bench peeled back, thin as a sheet of paper.

"I guess not," he said, staring at his desk.

"Mr Ollivander, what was that wand?" Fukurou asked.

"Willow, hair of a unicorn's tail, twelve inches," he recited.

"Perhaps if she tried mahogany?" Fukurou suggested. "I think my other girl would be better suited to this wand."

Hinata handed over the wand to her pink haired friend, who, when she waved it, produced a glow of pink light at the tip, which promptly went bang. Mr Ollivander winced slightly, and went to fetch another wand from his shelves.

"Why a different wood between us F- Owl?" Hinata asked, using the cover name Fukurou had given earlier.

Sakura, laying the wand down in its box, turned to listen as well.

"Sakura's first element was water, and willow trees grow best of all where?" she asked quietly while Mr Ollivander was out of the room.

"By rivers," the girls chorused.

"Here young lady, try this. Mahogany, unicorn hair, ten inches, and willow, kelpie hair, eleven inches," he said, handing over the wands to Hinata and Sakura respectively.

The two girls tried again just as they had before. Sakura's wand tip glowed pink again, and no further issue was made. A success. Hinata caused another layer of the table top to peel away.

"Maybe not," Fukurou, Ollivander, and Kakashi said.

Hinata ducked her head, embarrassed.

Shikamaru reached over to try it. He caused the table to break in half. He ducked his head in embarrassment.

Fukurou winced and, withdrawing her wand, repaired it.  
"I say, now _that_ wand..." Mr Ollivander said, staring at it. "_That_ wand I sold to a girl by the name of Hermione Granger. How did you come to have it Miss Owl?"

Fukurou winced again. "Mr Ollivander, if I were to have brown, fuzzy hair, and brown eyes..."

"I see it now," he said with a nod. "Why the change young lady?"

"Personal reasons, and I'd prefer it if you didn't mention to anyone that I am who I was, if that makes sense to you sir," Fukurou said.

Ollivander nodded, and gave Hinata another look over.

"Perhaps silver birch, and a different core," he muttered to himself. "Though apart from unicorn I don't know what would suit such a lovely young lady," he said as he wandered between the shelves.

Spotting one wand up on a shelf, he tried the whimsy of an old man, and pulled it down.

"Silver birch, hippogriff talon, twelve inches," he said, holding out the box to the Hyuuga.

Hinata waved her wand again, this time producing a soft pearly glow at the tip.

"That's the winner," he said happily, leaving the box with her, before turning to Shikamaru. "Which just leaves you, young man."

"I'd suggest dragon heart-string for him, since it is my understanding that you don't use thestral hairs in your wands," Fukurou said, smirking.

"Why would such an upstanding looking young man fit with such an animal?" Ollivander asked suspiciously.

"He's very good at not being seen," Fukurou answered fondly.

Ollivander shrugged and went to the back of his shop to the very old wands.

"Ivy, hair of a thestral's mane, fourteen inches," Ollivander told the boy solemnly. "Made by my father, shortly after mother died. Somewhat irregular materials."

Shikamaru took the handle of the mottled and stained wood, and with a reverent flick, appreciative of the apparent age of the thing, a deep green glow appeared at the tip of the wand.

"Thestrals are pretty things," Fukurou remarked quietly. "It's a shame you're only able to see them after witnessing someone die, it's given them a bad reputation."

"You're kidding, right H-" George caught himself, "-Owl? Thestrals, pretty?"

"I think so," she answered. "Well, that's everybody sorted," she said as she handed over the galleons, sickles and knuts, not even thinking of haggling the price with the old man. "Lead on friend George, lead on."

George nodded. "May we borrow your fireplace, Mr Ollivander?"

Kakashi closed his eyes, wiping a hand down his face. "Oh no, what strange method of travel are we using now?" he asked.

"Fluu," Fukurou answered. "You say where you're going, throw down the dust, and provided there is a fireplace connected to the fluu network, it will take you there. I'm surprised the Fluu's are still working if the Ministry is gone."

"Well they are, but only because there's a down time every day for a crew to make sure that everything is clear and working properly. It's actually working better than when the Ministry managed it," George explained. "So, we're going to 13 Grimmauld Place," he told them.

"Bit obvious."

"So's the Whomping Willow, and it serves much the same purpose," George answered, opening a jar and holding it out to the kids, and one after the other they stepped in, clearly stated the address, and were gone. They decided it was best to think of it as an assisted teleportation jutsu.

"Is this going to feel like portkey travel?" Kakashi asked warily.

"No, it's more like falling than being pulled," Fukurou answered with a humourless little smile.

"Great." The copy-nin was clearly unenthusiastic as he followed where most of Team 9 had gone before him.

~oOo~

George was the last one through, and he found Fukurou demonstrating _scourgify_ to her team, which they practised on each other, amazingly well considering they'd only gotten wands that day, and once they were all clean George indicated for them to follow him once more.

"Shut up you crazy old hag of a witch," he stated as he approached the portrait of Sirius' mother that was still hanging in the hall.

The woman narrowed her eyes, but her portrait swung to the side as the portrait before the Gryffindor common room had. George went first through the opening and into the passage behind.

"It's a bit of a long walk," he apologised, "and there are some passages installed for intruders to get lost in."

"How does Neville manage?" Fukurou asked.

"He never comes on his own," George answered, smiling weakly. "If you're not going to admit to being Hermione, er, Owl, then how are you going to explain you knowing stuff to everybody?"

"Just because my cousin and I lived continents apart, doesn't mean we weren't very close. We wrote a lot," Fukurou answered simply.

"That works."

It took an hour of walking through the dark but roomy tunnel before they reached a heavy looking wooden door with large iron reinforcements. George pulled out his wand to open it, but Kakashi had beaten him to it, and had simply pulled the door open, bowing slightly to Fukurou in a gentlemanly manner.

"That door weighs half a tonne!" George objected, not believing his eyes.

"No, only about a hundred kilos," Kakashi answered blandly. "If it had been a full half tonne, I'd have taken five minutes to open it instead of five seconds. You do keep the hinges well oiled though, which always helps with such things."

"We have different ways of doing things, I think you can appreciate," Fukurou said gently, patting George kindly on the shoulder. "Hinata, will you get the door behind us?"

Hinata giggled and nodded happily, knowing that Fukurou-sensei had asked her because she was visibly the smallest member of the group physically.

Once she had closed the door, the full attention of the room was on her – and there were more people here than just her team, her sensei, and their guide.

"Tiny kid... huge door... closed easily..." a boy who looked like he was probably related to the twins stuttered, eyes huge as he stared.

"You're being rude," a girl with the same orange hair as him and the twins said, cuffing him on the back of his head. "Just because it was impressive doesn't give you leave to gape like a fish," she added to him before turning to the group. "That's Ron, and I'm Ginny," the youngest of the Weasley children said. "Nice to meetcha."

Team 9 bowed politely, Kakashi nodding in acknowledgement of the introduction.

"It's nice to finally get the chance to meet you," Fukurou said, stepping forward. "I'm ... call me Owl, that's what my name translates to, and I suspect there would be general butchering of names if we don't do that. My cousin Hermione wrote me about you before..."

Ron and Ginny's eyes grew slightly wide as they took in her face, and nodded mutely in understanding.

Fukurou had told her students that she would give them code names to operate by for this mission, to save their real names from getting regularly butchered more than anything, and Kakashi would submit to such as well.

"These three are my students," Fukurou continued, moving behind the chuunin. "Or rather, they _were_ my students, but they graduated yesterday."

"We still have lots to learn from you though sensei!" Hinata protested.

"You're a good girl, and I'm still going to be your usual team leader," Fukurou answered, patting Hinata's head. "This is Pearl," she said, smiling fondly at the girl. The name would stick easily for the wizards and witches, as it reflected Hinata's eyes.

"Not her real name, I take it?" Ginny asked.

Hinata shook her head. "It's easy to remember though," she said softly.

Fukurou smiled and moved to Sakura. "This is Rose," she said, giving her another flower name, and one which she thought suited Sakura even better than her own name, as the sakura blossom, even if it did match her hair perfectly, started dying the instant it appeared, while roses had thorns hidden in their beauty, and lasted a bit longer.

Sakura smiled, liking the implications in the name. Roses weren't common in Konohagakure, but she had seen the rose bush Fukurou-sensei had planted in her garden shortly after Hinata's first attempts with the subtle knife technique.

Fukurou smiled as she moved on to Shikamaru. Actually, thinking of an Anglicised name for him was hardest of all, as anything relating to his family's deer would set off Harry, and if she gave him a name indicating his genius it would just sound wrong. In the end, she had chosen one that related to his attitude that everything was 'troublesome', but also potentially mentioned how he worked.

"Our young man you may call Grim," she said, smirking as she pulled at his bunch of hair.

"Grim?" Ron asked, paling slightly as he considered the connotations from his Divination class; the dog that some wizards saw as a portent of their own deaths.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru groused, hands shoved in his pockets, but smirked at his sensei. He liked it, and it was short. He knew that without the translation charm on him _he'd_ mispronounce it though.

Fukurou smiled back at him and moved up to Kakashi, smiling particularly sweetly at him.

"And this is my fiancé, Wolf," she said, smiling at him fondly, aware that he'd had a dog mask when he was in ANBU and that his father had been the great 'White Fang' of Konoha. She hoped he'd get that she was proud of every part of his life and history.

Kakashi's only visible eye softened, and she knew it was a sad smile, but he was smiling anyway, which was good.

"Fiancé?" Ron yelped. "But I'd swear you're the same age as me! He looks like he's in his fifties at least!"

Kakashi sagged, resting his face against Fukurou's shoulder. He really didn't like it when people assumed he was old based on his hair colour.

"Yes, fiancé," Fukurou said firmly. "Wolf has had this colour hair his whole life. He's only just going on twenty-two, and yes, I _am_ nineteen," she clarified.

"You're an idiot Ronny-kins," George said firmly, and Ginny bopped her brother on the head again.

"Ow! Don't tell me you thought he was that young when you looked at him," he objected.

"I'm faced with a girl with white eyes who can clearly see just fine, a girl with apparently _natural_ pink hair, and a person with Hermione's face. At this point I'm not making _any_ judgements Ron," Ginny informed him.

"Who else is here?" George asked, changing the subject. "I'm guessing Fred is with Harry."

Ron and Ginny nodded.

"Yeah," Ron said, "and Lupin's getting ready for his full moon tonight in the basement."

"Snape is brewing two potions at once in the kitchen," Ginny added, "and Tonks is trying to track down and contact everybody who was on the membership list of the DA who is still alive and not on his side, since we're probably going to need all the help we can get against Dumbledore."

Fukurou smiled cruelly.

"That's why _we're_ here," Hinata and Sakura said together, matching smiles of malicious delight on their faces.

Shikamaru smirked as well and nodded.

"No need to assemble an army of civilians when a team of efficient and trained soldiers are available," Kakashi added in a soft, amused, hum.

Everyone stared, slack-jawed at their confidence.


	27. Chapter 27

Fukurou visited Snape first. This was important as he was her previous employer in this area, and it was important that, as she was no longer as deeply undercover, that he not blow the little cover that she had worked over with the twins.

"Snape Severus-sensei," she said in her language, greeting him, and recognising him as one who had taught her.

"Uchiha-san, what a surprise," he answered in the same tongue, not looking up as he was pouring the first potion into a cup. "How is it that you come to be here once more, and just as we need your expertise?"

"I went shopping in Diagon Alley and confronted the twins, a little over a year ago now," she explained. "They came to me for help last night."

"Your new cover?" he asked.

"I am Owl, a cousin of Hermione from another country," she answered.

"Are you alone as before?"

"My team, recently graduated to chuunin rank, and my fiancé, who is ANBU level, have come also."

"You seem young to be engaged," Snape observed, raising an eyebrow as he finally looked at her over the two cauldrons between them. "I had not expected you to be so fast about that kind of decision."

"He asked me last night, sensei, since my return to Konohagakure he courted me very properly according to our customs," she assured him. "Shinobi also often die young, so it is best that we do not take too long about such things."

"Your students are here," he said, accepting her answer and moving on from it. "How are you as their teacher?"

"My team was the only one of over thirty for all members to pass the promotional examination," she answered. "I would be honoured if you would deign to teach my students some part of your wisdom. The pink-haired one particularly would be most enthused."

Snape nodded. "I shall consider it."

Fukurou smirked. "As you will consider writing a book some day, Snape-sensei?" she asked.

He smirked back and gave a single dry chuckle. "Indeed," he said, pouring the second potion into a very different chalice to the first. "This one is for Potter," Snape explained, holding it up. "If you have not seen him yet then I will ask you to take this to him. I must deliver the other," he gestured here to the first potion he had poured, and which was smoking slightly, "to Remus."

Fukurou accepted the cup and nodded, leaving the room. She could feel exactly where Harry's unique, untrained chakra signature was. All chakra signatures here were untrained, like civilians, though because of the magic the wizards used, they also had some strange patterns to them.

~oOo~

"Harry," a gentle voice called through the mists of his mind. He knew that voice. He'd been scolded and cheered and comforted by that voice. He'd listened to that voice more than he'd listened to the voices of his teachers.

"Hermione?" he asked, but it couldn't be, because she was dead. Tears welled in his eyes as he remembered that.

A chuckle, a dry chuckle that sounded in Hermione's voice, but in a way that she never had, echoed slightly.

"No Harry, I'm not Hermione," the voice, Hermione's voice, said. "Will you wake up please? Mr Snape has given me a potion that he says you need to take."

That sounded sufficiently unlike anything Hermione would have said that it pulled him from his restless dreaming, and he opened his eyes, one hand already fumbling around for his glasses until he found them and slid them up his nose.

The face that he saw, once the world was in focus, frightened him.

"Hermione!" he cried. But it was impossible.

"No, Harry," she said, shaking her head. "Hermione was my cousin. She wrote to me a lot about you, and I got the chance to meet Fred and George when I came to attend her muggle funeral and stopped by Diagon Alley afterwards. I'm Owl."

"You look so much like her," Harry said, sitting up carefully in his bed.

Owl nodded and held out a cup to him. "Mr Snape gave me a potion for you to take," she said again, watching as he took it and, once he had sniffed it, drained it down.

"It tastes horrible," he said once the cup was empty, "but I'd probably go mad without it these days."

"I heard you weren't doing too well," Owl said kindly. "That's why we came."

"We?"

"My fiancé and my team. We're ... trained warriors, I suppose. Fred and George found me last night and asked me to come help, and after a bit of discussion with my boss, here we are," she answered. "Do you think you're up to meeting them?"

Harry nodded.

~oOo~

After nearly nothing for a week, it only took two days for the shinobi to learn the _what_ and the _where_ of Albus Dumbledore's _horcrux_. The first day of the two, the now chuunin Team 9 had managed to capture the paranoid Moody, who had evaded everybody's radar for a very long time. Hinata had spotted him lurking around, and had recognised him from descriptions by the Weasleys. They wouldn't have bothered asking him anything beyond where Dumbledore currently was – which he wasn't exactly willing to tell them – except that Minerva McGonagall had appeared with a discovery in Albus' journals.

Fukurou had smiled in that especially evil way that was all her own, the kind of smile she wore when telling genin that they were going to train until they hurled. Team 9 and Kakashi smirked and followed her into the room where Moody was contained, his chakra points blocked to keep him unconscious and safe. Shikamaru had gotten him in a shadow bind so that he couldn't do any spells, and Hinata had jabbed his points when they captured him. Now Sakura was laying out her senbon ready for Fukurou-sensei and whatever it was she planned to do.

Fukurou first took the man's wand, and asked Kakashi to tie him to his chair, as though he were an S-class prisoner. Once he was secure and Shikamaru, Sakura and Hinata had all been given the chance to study the knots, Fukurou asked Hinata to unlock the chakra point that had been keeping the man unconscious.

"Whoever you are, you won't get anything from me," Moody said as soon as he was conscious again and aware of being in company and restrained.

Fukurou laughed in a good humoured way. "Oh but Alistor, I disagree," she said.

"I've endured torture spells before, countless times, I can handle whatever you might do," he spat, furious, hiding his surprise at being addressed by his first name by a complete stranger.

"I've had the luxury of a few torture spells myself," Fukurou answered brightly. "I thought they tickled. Of course, you have to put on a show for things like that, or they think it's not working and get worried."

Moody's regular eye widened.

"Now then, let's start with a few basics. I already know that you and Albus are friends, and have been for most of your lives, so I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and suggest that you _knew_ about all the things he did that the Ministry, when it still stood, would have frowned heavily upon if had they ever been given the chance to pick at that clever, sneaky, insidious brain of yours," Fukurou said with a smile. It was the same smile she had smiled for Hyuuga Hyashi, the one that was perfectly polite and fixed.

"I'm not telling you anything," Moody stated again.

Fukurou's smile widened ever-so-slightly. "So that's a yes," she supplied. "I really am lucky that there isn't any truth serum you know, Alistor," she told him, leaning in closely. "It means that I get to show my old students how torture and interrogation is _supposed_ to be done, just as my teacher taught it to me all those years ago."

His eye, the mad one, swivelled around in his skull until she assumed it was pointing at the chuunin who were just now going on thirteen.

"They're children!" he exclaimed, offended at the idea.

"Oh no, they've been recognised as adults for over a year now," Fukurou said, falsely surprised that he would think so, "and I learned my torture and interrogation when I was only six. They really are coming to it quite late by comparison."

The eye swivelled around again, landing on Kakashi.

"Was it you taught her?" he demanded harshly.

Kakashi shook his head. "The many varied subtleties of torture aren't exactly in my repertoire of skills. I generally just kill people," he answered in his most politely indifferent tone, though a hint of a smile could be seen in the little bit of face not hidden by his mask or headband, despite that he was quite offended at being mistaken for an older man _again_.

Fukurou had told them that for this man, they must be idyllically polite, slightly happy, enthusiastic to learn, as well as completely pleasant and eager for the processes as though it were their favourite subject in school. It would upset his sense of how things were supposed to go.

"Alistor, is that eye still bothering you since Barty 'borrowed' it? What was it now, it must be five? six years ago?" Fukurou asked, drawing his attention back to her. "How about we just take that out for you?" she suggested, as though talking to a child with a splinter they needed removed, or an uncomfortable stone in their shoe that ought to be taken out.

That she knew these details about him, this woman he had never met before, though she looked like a dead girl, clearly disturbed Moody further.

"Rose, would you like to withdraw his artificial eye?" Fukurou offered.

"Yes please!" Sakura answered happily, stepping up. "Painful? Painless? Fast? Slow? Any particular way I should do it sensei?"

"However you like," Fukurou answered as though allowing the girl to choose what toppings she would have on her ice cream sundae, while she picked up a cleaned tin can to put the object in. "Think of it as practice for eye surgery in a non-ideal environment if you like, only you are performing exclusively the procedure to save the eye, rather than completing a full transplant into another person's head."

Sakura grinned widely and stepped up, healing chakra forming a glowing blade out the end of her finger. This she used to lever in behind the eye, popping it out with a _shhhock_ sound.

"Now, I know that didn't hurt you Alistor," Fukurou said as Sakura dropped the eye into the little can, "but I think it might be somewhat, now, what is the word I'm looking for Grim?"

Shikamaru smirked. "Troublesome," he said.

"Yes, it would be somewhat troublesome to you to have lost your eye _and_ your wand," Fukurou said, holding up Moody's wand for him to see and handing it over to Hinata.

The white eyed girl gently tossed it into the air and attacked it with a variation of her subtle knife technique. Splinters rained down.

Moody was both impressed with the action, and deeply unimpressed with the result. It was, after all, his wand. It was both his weapon and his defence, and unlike his friend Albus, he wasn't exactly proficient with wandless magic.

"So Alistor," Fukurou said brightly, "your good friend Albus: what sort of things is he up to these days? Apart from using _horcrux_ and acting like Mouldy-Voldey, that is," she asked.

The interview continued. Sakura handed over senbon carefully, while Fukurou cheerfully explained to all of them what would happen to the body when she slammed it in _there_ or _here_, and they listened as Moody grunted in pain. She didn't stop there of course, and soon a senbon was struck completely through each elbow and shoulder, with another two sticking out from each thigh where it joined to his hips.

Every member of Team 9 got to share the joy of breaking fingers, and Kakashi showed off his skill with a kunai by throwing two over his shoulder without looking, and pinning the captive's feet to the floor.

"See Alistor, torture spells aren't all that bad, are they?" Fukurou said, withdrawing her wand from its pocket. "I think your memory could be getting fuzzy though, so I'll refresh it for you. Keep in mind, we want to know about dear old Albus, where he is, what he's up to, and if you have any idea about his _horcrux_ at all," she added, an innocent expression on his face, as though she were only asking him his favourite flavour of cake. She then instructed her students in the cutting curse, and carefully aimed it at the tendons in his knees before having them point their wands at different parts of Moody and trying it themselves.

Finally, Fukurou was able to provide her students with the sweetness of a grown man crying. It would have been harder, taken longer if it had been a shinobi of the same advanced years, but he was only the _magical_ world's version of ANBU – roughly equating to a seasoned and tricky chuunin who had never been actually tortured before, only severely injured as a result of battles, as far as knowledge and ability to withstand such treatment went.

"Now Alistor," Fukurou purred gently. "My little Rose here has been learning how to bring the freshly dead back to life – only the recently dead mind you, I cannot and will not condone necromancy or the resurrection of those long dead, I mean, zombies and rotting flesh? No thank you. Now, so far she has only been using this technique on -" she looked over at her student, as she had not been present at the lessons and didn't actually know.

"Fish," Sakura supplied.

"- on fish. I think perhaps she should learn how it's done on people. Of course, this will need you to be dead first," Fukurou explained to him.

"You would use the killing curse?" he demanded, shocked.

"Oh no," Fukurou answered. "Why bother with magic when Wolf here is such an excellently clean killer?"

"I can do messy as well, but that would make things harder for Rose," he said, withdrawing a short sword that had been part of his ANBU kit for the couple of years he had been in the special ops.

Moody still refused to speak, believing that they were bluffing.

The sword sliced across the man's throat and a kunai buried itself into his heart.

Sakura immediately began the process of repair and re-fixed Moody's soul to his body.

"My eye!" he yelped as soon as he had drawn breath. "One of his _horcrux_ is my eye."

"Very nicely done Rose, and thank you Wolf," Fukurou said to each of them, smiling proudly over the girl. "So _one of_ Dumbledore's _horcrux_ is your eye, Alistor? He made five, didn't he? The Weasley Twins tell me that they've already destroyed one, and soon he'll be down two, won't he? Now, Alistor, is the _horcrux_ your real eye, or the mad one we have in the tin here?"

"The one in the tin. Even for Albus I wouldn't make myself completely blind," Moody admitted clearly disgusted with himself.

Sakura selected one of her senbon that had been half-dipped in a flesh-eating acid. Picking it up from the safe end, she skewered the eyeball in the tin and picked it up for Moody and everybody to watch as the acid melted the orb.

"Where did you get that acid Rose?" Shikamaru asked, curious.

Fukurou wanted to know that herself, and raised an eyebrow at her subordinate and ex-student.

"It's an insect excretion," she answered, blushing slightly.

"So you got it from your boyfriend," Shikamaru teased.

Sakura blushed deeply, but didn't protest the accusation, and the smile on her face was one of real content happiness, even if it was only small and hidden.

Fukurou chuckled at this, but returned her attention to the prisoner.

"The other three, Alistor," she said quietly. "As you can see, we have really been quite nice to you so far."

He clammed up again, and Fukurou withdrew a kunai. Moving behind him, she shaved his head carefully, explaining to her students as she went, about drilling into a person's skull – the origins of the practice in medicine, and its continued use as a form of torture. Stepping in front of Moody again, Fukurou transfigured the kunai she had just shaved his head with into a corkscrew and tapped the tip of it around his skull, trying to choose the best place to make the first hole.

Alistor opened up a little bit then.

One was a set of druid robes hidden in a cave beneath Stone Henge. Another was the man's own hat – "and good luck getting it off him," he added spitefully. The last _horcrux_ was Fawkes' tail feather in Harry's wand.

It had taken a little _extra_ persuasion to get the man to admit to that last one, but seeing black eyes turn red and focus on him, comas swirling gently and a whispered promise of a nightmare he would never, _ever_ escape, had been disturbing enough to the man that he'd screamed it.

~oOo~

When Kakashi emerged from the interrogation room, it was to see Harry's wand being broken by the boy himself and the extracted feather being destroyed by Snape with Godric's sword. It seemed that the room hadn't been quite as sound-proof as everybody had hoped.

"Good morning," Ginny said when she saw him, her face paler than it usually was, and slightly green around the edges. "You lot have been in there all night you know."

Kakashi nodded that yes, he knew.

"So that's another one dealt with," Lupin said as the wand was destroyed.

"That leaves three, right?" Ron asked.

"Two. His eye was one as well. There's just some clothes in a cave and the old man's hat," Kakashi answered.

"Where's the cave? Me and Fred can go on the hunt right now," George offered. "We're fresh as daisies after all," he wasn't fooling anybody, they both looked as sick as their little sister, though they had clearly had a bit more sleep than her.

"It's under Stone Henge," Fukurou answered as she emerged from the room, Shikamaru and Hinata following. Sakura was staying in the room to heal the man and pack up her senbon. "Something to do with being a 'Supreme Sorcerer' I believe?"

Lupin nodded. "I know the one," he said. "I'll go with you," he added to the twins.

That was that, and they disapparated.

"Owl," Snape said. "He could be lying. You did not wait for me to make any Veritas Syrum."

"I don't think he was lying Mr Snape," she answered happily. "People tend not to when they've been put through the correct process."

"What will happen to Alistor now?" McGonagall asked from where she sat, stirring her tea.

"Rose will heal him once she's packed up her things. After she is finished... well, I leave that up to you."

McGonagall nodded.

"There was no use of Unforgivable curses was there?" Tonks asked.

"We used only the cutting curse on him, and a few transfiguration spells so that I had the tools that I wanted but had forgotten to pack," Fukurou answered. "The cutting curse hasn't joined the three Unforgivables in the last year has it?"

McGonagall shook her head. She was clearly relieved – if the sigh she released at the same time was any indication. Tonks was also visibly more at ease with the airing of this bit of news.

"If Ginny and Miss Tonks would escort Harry to Ollivander's, where he can acquire a new wand," Fukurou said, giving directions once again. "My team will retrieve the hat and dispose of Dumbledore."

"Do you know where you're going?" McGonagall asked.

"He's in Wales," Sakura answered, coming out of the room where she had been healing Moody, her task done. "Mr Moody said the wizarding town as far west as possible on the main island, but he seemed genuinely unable to say specifically which town that is."

"That's too long of a flight for broomsticks," McGonagall said. "You would have to stop regularly, and for long distances avoiding muggle towns, they would just be uncomfortable."

"They could take the school's thestrals," Snape suggested. "They're fast, and they wouldn't be so uncomfortable as the broomsticks. Less likely to be spotted as well."

Fukurou smiled. "That sounds great," she said happily. "I don't suppose I'd be able to take a breeding pair home with me when we're done?" she asked.

Snape raised an eyebrow at the request.

McGonagall gaped and spluttered a moment before finding an answer. "I suppose, but..."

"Why?" Fukurou suggested, still smiling. "I think they're pretty, and I have a lot of space at home that I think they would be able to enjoy."

"You have a strange sense of what is _pretty_," Snape said, but agreed to take them to the school, and the thestrals, the next day. In the mean time, he wanted a look at what they had done to Alistor Moody. He was surprised to see that the only visible changes in the once again unconscious man were that he had been given a haircut and that his 'mad eye' was missing.


	28. Chapter 28

"Sensei," Hinata said as Snape led them into the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts School, "Why did we have to catch a train here?"

"It's a guard against unwanted people just popping in," she said absently. "I'm not happy that it took most of the day when we're trying to get this done as quickly as possible, but that's the way things are sometimes."

When Snape pulled out a bag of raw, ever-so-slightly-rotting meat and laid it out, Fukurou motioned for silence.

When the somewhat skeletal and vaguely reptilian winged horses filtered through the trees, she allowed the chuunin to step forward, softly. The creatures may have been carnivorous, but that didn't mean that they weren't at least a little shy of people.

"They are smart creatures," she told them firmly. "Be polite," and led by example.

Fukurou bowed to the herd, and when one brought it's head up from it's meal, fixing it's gaze on her, she unbent and took a step closer, holding out her hand to it.

The thestral approached her, and dipped it's nose briefly into her palm before turning to the side slightly, indicating that she may pat it.

"Thank you very much," she said quietly, stroking it's scaled neck and soft black mane. "If you please, my friends and I need to reach a magical town in the west of the country," Fukurou explained.

The thestral fixed its eyes on her again, giving her its full attention.

"I'm afraid that our directions are a bit vague, but we know that the town we're looking for is in the far west of the island," she apologised sincerely. "We have to find Dumbledore."

The beast snorted and nodded, but looked at the pile of meat that was still being devoured by its heard mates.

"Of course, you should finish your meal first," she said smiling and stroking down its back.

It butted its head to her chest a moment before turning away to eat.

"They really are pretty, sensei," Hinata said softly, awed by the creatures, and Sakura nodded her agreement.

Shikamaru smirked. "They would scare some of the deer back home, but they sure are impressive," he said, pleased to meet the type of creature that had supplied the core to the wand he was beginning to learn how to use. Transfiguration lessons with McGonagall and Fukurou the previous day had been very interesting, and if the look on Ron's face had been anything to go by, highly accelerated and advanced.

Kakashi seemed to be simply content to pat one as it ate.

"I shall take a pair to Konohagakure for you," Snape said, deciding he didn't want to know the details of the death each of them had seen to make them able to see the thestrals, "and settle them in before portkeying back."

"Thank you, Snape-sensei," Fukurou said, smiling at the man genuinely. She was paying for this mission to happen after all; it would be nice to come back with something as lovely as a pair of breeding thestrals. They would make up for the dent in the Uchiha family bank account that this mission was going to cause, and then some.

At some point, she realised, she would have to get a few extra, so that they did not become weak and inbred. _What a lovely idea_, she smiled to herself. More thestrals in Konohagakure. Perhaps they could become a summon animal like Kakashi's dogs, Tsunade's slugs, Jiraiya's toads or the thankfully _late_ Orochimaru's snakes.

The idea was becoming more and more appealing, but Fukurou forced herself to put it away. There was a crazy old wizard who needed to be found and put down before any of that could be properly considered. Besides, training and making a contract with summons animals was difficult at the best of times.

~oOo~

The thestrals cleared up the meat, leaving only the juices staining the grass in the evening light, and then the shinobi were permitted to mount the creatures. The thestrals chose their riders, rather than waiting for the shinobi to approach them again.

Fukurou handed a scroll to Snape, so that her family would accept what he said and make allowance for the animals on the property – she didn't want her pretty gifts to be turned away because Itachi or Zabuza didn't trust her first employer's presence with the beasts.

They mounted the five thestrals who had chosen them and the dark animals took off.

The flight took all of the day and part of the night before they touched down.

"At last," Kakashi said, as he dismounted, stroking the thestral, "a way of travelling in this culture that I like."

"Broomsticks aside," Fukurou said with a chuckle.

"Broomsticks are for fun, not serious travel," Kakashi answered firmly.

Team 9 chuckled, and thanked the thestrals that had brought them here, and waved them farewell as they took off back for their home forest at Hogwarts.

"That means that we'll be taking a portkey back, doesn't it?" Kakashi asked, unhappy with the idea.

"Yep," Fukurou answered. "Sorry love."

Kakashi sighed and resigned himself to it.

"Pearl, do you see anybody we can follow?" Fukurou asked.

Hinata activated her byakugan and looked around them turning as she scanned the town and the people there.

A plump witch with hair like the Weasley children came into her view, and she pointed her out.

"Mrs Molly Weasley, wife of Arthur and mother of our good friends," Fukurou said quietly, recognising her. "Poor, unfortunate, misguided, loyal, sweet woman. She'll be out shopping for their dinner."

"We follow her then," Shikamaru said. "Will we have to be very cautious?"

Fukurou shook her head. "She's likely on alert, but she doesn't really have the knowledge of how this is done properly."

"Stealth."

"Shadows."

"Skyline."

"All correct," Fukurou affirmed with a grin at the team remembering the three S's. "Time to disappear."

Separately, the chuunin of Team 9 tracked Mrs Molly Weasley through the town, following her without being seen, either by her or any of the other wizards and witches of the magical village.

Fukurou and Kakashi took a different tack, hiding beneath henge and blending in with the regular population of the town. Just enjoying a date through the streets, a happy couple, but they kept an eye on Molly Weasley as they walked, arms linked and holding hands.

Fukurou tapped Molly on the shoulder at one point, when they were close enough to do so.

"Excuse me," she said, smiling apologetically, "but we're new in town," she continued, indicating the henged Kakashi, who was very obviously a handsome young man at that moment. "Is there anywhere you would recommend for a good lunch?"

Molly smiled at them, as was her naturally friendly nature, and fussed a moment over the sweet girl and her handsome man, and how she had once been so in love with her husband as she could see that they were, before she got around to saying that there was a bakery-cafe just around the corner.

"Thank you, uh -?"

"Oh, I'm sorry dear, I'm Molly, Molly Weasley," Molly said, introducing herself.

"I'm Heather," Fukurou said, "and this is Keith," another pair of false names. "Thank you so much Mrs Weasley for your help and kindness."

"Not a bit Heather dear, and call me Molly," Molly answered. "If you think you want to move here, I know there's a place in Quirn Street up for sale."

Fukurou smiled at that. People usually only knew of property sales in their own streets, so that was a very good lead. "Thank you Molly," Fukurou said earnestly and smiling brightly. "Perhaps we'll see you around then?"

"I do hope so Heather," Molly said, taking her hand and patting it kindly. "These days friendly faces are so overcast with worry, yours is like a breath of fresh air."

Kakashi slipped a small tracking tag into a fold of Molly's robe when she took his hand firmly in hers to shake.

"You take good care of this lovely young lady," Molly told him firmly. "She's obviously a treasure."

"She's the light of my life," Kakashi answered sincerely.

Molly smiled and nodded, then with a wave, resumed her shopping, ambling down the street, purchasing groceries and slabs of meat as she went.

"Target confirmed and tagged, now we wait," Kakashi whispered quietly, pretending that it was a lover's suggestion.

"Give the signal for Rose to come in, we can tell her to search Quirn Street," Fukurou whispered in return, giggling slightly for effect.

Kakashi nodded and they headed for the bakery that Molly had recommended, just in case she looked back. He then gave her a deep bow and gestured for her to lead the way, the signal for Sakura to come in. For Shikamaru, Kakashi would lean against the wall while Fukurou fussed at a window on the other side of the street. Hinata would come in if Fukurou was lifted and spun in Kakashi's arms. Perfectly normal actions for a couple to perform when they were happily in love.

A woman in faded purple wizard robes, with bright blue eyes and platinum blond hair – a possible Yamanaka Ino in a half-dozen years, if she ever came to the wizarding world – appeared by them just as they were heading into the bakery.

"Oh, sorry about that," she said, stopping short of bumping into Fukurou.

"It's alright," Fukurou answered.

"Do you know if the bread here is good?" the woman, Sakura in disguise, asked.

"No, we haven't tried it before," Kakashi answered. "But it was recommended to us, as was a place on Quirn Street."

The disguised Sakura smiled and thanked them. "Perhaps I shall try that place then," she said, and wandered off with a pleasant wave, disappearing into the crowd of other wizards, witches, and their children that were being pulled along behind them before she replaced the henge with a camouflage jutsu and leaped to the roofs once more.

~oOo~

It was half an hour later when Fukurou and Kakashi emerged from the bakery-cafe once again, having had lunch and with a few sausage rolls in a box to share with Team 9. A third shadow appeared beside their two and jabbed at the shadow of Fukurou's arm, gently, as if to only get her attention – and it was.

"Grim," Fukurou whispered, turning slightly and with a smirk pulled Kakashi into the alley gently, as though to kiss him where they would have no audience.

The third shadow, Shikamaru, followed them in. Out of sight of any passers by, Shikamaru emerged from the wall slightly.

"Rose has confirmed Quirn Street as having a house hidden inside a genjutsu. Someone is trying to make believe that it isn't there at all. Pearl says there is a man inside the hidden residence matching Dumbledore's description, though in the whole of the house there are over a dozen hats," Shikamaru reported.

"We will go in after the sun goes down," Fukurou said. "Get the girls, and we'll meet up outside the town, we'll set up camp and have something to eat."

They had just finished pitching their tents when an owl, large, white and familiar to Fukurou as Harry's bird Hedwig, came flying in, landing on Fukurou's arm when she held it out to the beautiful snowy.

"Hello girl," she said, cooing softly, stroking her feathers a moment before reaching to take the letter from her leg. "If you'll get down, I'm sure Rose or Pearl will be happy to feed you a tidbit of sausage roll," she suggested.

Hedwig obligingly hopped down and glided over to Hinata's shoulder, and the girls took it in turns to feed the large bird.

"What's that?" Kakashi asked, looking at Fukurou from his place by the fire as she opened the letter.

"It's from Harry. George, Fred and Lupin are back from Stone Henge. The robe is destroyed, and Harry's got his new wand. They will all be here as soon as they can to help. If we don't want this to get stupid and dramatic then we have to finish this up tonight. It will take at least another twenty-four hours before they get here, as they can't apparate over such distances."

Kakashi nodded his understanding. They needed to move fast, especially if they wanted to fit some sleeping into their schedule.

He used his teleportation jutsu and, in a puff of chakra, was gone into town again. He would find a way of getting through the wards and guarding genjutsu around the house that Sakura and Hinata had identified.


	29. Chapter 29

As soon as the sun had disappeared completely from the sky, as well as the last residual rays, the shinobi moved in on their target. Kakashi had found a way for all of them to get in, and their first task would be to remove all hats from the residence.

Of all their D-ranked missions where they cleaned up garbage and rescued cats from trees and baby-sat brat children and walked dogs for the Inuzuka, the two jounin and three chuunin had to admit to themselves that stealing _hats_ of all things, had to be the dumbest thing they had ever done on a mission.

Hinata was the first one to head in, her task was to hit the pressure points and chakra pathways on every body she saw, human or otherwise, putting them into a state of unconsciousness that only another touch from her, or another Hyuuga, would be able to reverse. As the only Hyuuga in the area though, it was a fairly safe bet that she would be the only one to be applying such a touch.

When that task was completed, Shikamaru began the retrieval of the hats, and Fukurou burnt them, quickly and silently where she waited on the roof, where Sakura had set up a genjutsu so that they would not be spotted. The fire spell that she was using had to be very powerful after all, and they didn't want to cause alarm to any of the locals.

Once all of the hats had been found, removed and burned – and a thorough sweep had been made to confirm this, even the night-caps and joke hats from old party crackers had not been spared – they would all head in.

This important task done and completely assured that no one would wake, Kakashi slipped in and withdrew his sword as he considered all of the sleeping figures in the house.

"That's him," Fukurou whispered, having come in with him.

Kakashi saw that she was pointing at one old man with a white beard so long the man had tucked it into the belt of his sleeping robes.

"That's Albus Dumbledore," she confirmed.

Kakashi moved the ridiculous beard aside and cleanly sliced through the cervical vertebrae, as he would execute a man who knelt before him committing suicide with a ceremonial dagger – as was the samurai's way, rather than the shinobi's. Still, he had such experiences in his past, all of them memorable and none of them pleasant.

"Nice," Shikamaru said softly from where he and Hinata were waiting at the window.

"Very nice," Sakura agreed as she slipped in before bringing her hand, glowing with healing chakra, to the bared flesh where she re-grew skin over the open flesh so that it was completely tidy.

"_Scourgify_," Fukurou muttered, pointing to the man's sheets, which had been tainted by and with Dumbledore's blood the instant Kakashi's sword had bitten into his flesh.

"Who did that?" a voice asked, and Fukurou recognised Dumbledore's voice.

"Hello Albus," she said, as the old wizard's ghost rose from his body.

"You look like Miss Granger," he observed.

"I was her, once. My name is Owl now," she told him.

"I suppose it was you and your company that killed me, hmm?" he asked. "I'll have you know I have ways of coming back."

"All of your _horcrux_ are destroyed Albus," Fukurou answered, arms folded. "You will have to content yourself with merely haunting places."

Dumbledore's ghost frowned at that.

"And I would appreciate it if you would leave Harry, the Weasleys, Remus _and_ Severus alone," she added. "I think their lives have been altogether meddled with _quite_ enough. If I hear about you giving them trouble, I'll find a way to kick you off the ethereal plane you inhabit now."

Dumbledore sniffed at the idea.

"How did you get in?" he demanded to know. "And how did you not wake up everybody?"

"Actually, it wasn't that hard. We found the place, we broke through the wards and the illusions, climbed in a window, put everybody under, and here we are," Hinata answered, quiet confidence and a certain measure of amusement ringing through her tone.

Fukurou was so proud of how far Hinata had come from being that timid and green little genin she had first met. She had grown so much, they all had.

"I'll give them all a sleeping draught, and then Pearl will undo what she did to everybody, that way they will all sleep until morning, and we can be miles away when they wake up, feeling unaccountably hung over," Sakura said, holding up a beaker of one of the many potions she had learned how to make from Severus between arriving and finding Moody.

"Congratulations, you have spontaneously lost your head in the night," Shikamaru said, smirking.

The shinobi turned from the spectre and went to tend to his foolishly loyal followers, the people he had manipulated like puppets for so long that they had truly, willingly, lost their own will to him without even having been aware of it.

The shinobi pitied them that loss, and hoped that they never had to suffer like that, or that their Hokage became so much of an issue in their village as Albus Dumbledore had here.

They left the house as the first grey light of dawn began to lighten the edges of the sky, but the sun had yet to reach the point of providing any luminous colour to the panorama.

"Job well done everyone," Fukurou told them happily.

"In, out, no one knew we were there," Kakashi added in approval. These three were excellent shinobi, perfect little shadows at work when the task required them to be.

The three all beamed under the praise of their superiors, even Shikamaru.

"Now, back to camp, and we can do some meditation and taijutsu training until the others get here, and word gets out about Dumbledore dying, again," Fukurou said, smiling happily at her team.

General approval of the idea rounded the group, and they sprinted through the light scrub until they got to their tents. Fukurou smirked as she considered how incredibly out of place their camp site would be if they had been at a camping site favoured by the magical population of England, or indeed of a good deal of Europe. Two canvases, strung up and pegged down into triangular shapes, open ended so it was possible to escape and/or attack quickly if an alarm-trap when off, and a pit fire lined with small stones so that it could all be scattered easily and hide any evidence of camping at all. No castles made of canvas or things that were bigger on the inside than the outside, just two stretched canvasses and a fire pit, with five thick blankets lying where the shinobi had while they caught a few quick winks between finding Dumbledore and assassinating him.

~oOo~

It was at this camp that the wizards found the shinobi. Team 9 were meditating upside down, standing on their hands, while Kakashi was doing push-ups with Fukurou sitting cross-legged on his shoulders, also meditating. Something was boiling over the fire as well, and it smelled delicious.

"What the bloody hell?" Ron said, not at all used to this. This was even more bare than the camp his dad had set up when they went to the Quidditch Cup, and he could _see_ that these tents weren't like the ones his dad had brought. He also had no idea what these foreign people were up to.

"Team 9," Fukurou's voice broke the silence, though she had not opened her eyes. "Finalise your thoughts and welcome our guests. Wolf, that is five hundred," she said, unfolding one leg and getting off his shoulders before stretching the other leg down to join the first.

The younger ninja pushed off their hands and landed on their feet, one after the other, without a sound.

"Good afternoon," the girls chorused.

"Hey," Shikamaru added, raising a hand lazily.

Kakashi stood and put his shirt back on before turning around, displaying his rippling shoulder and back muscles, as well as a couple of scars, to the magic users.

"Mine," Fukurou warned possessively when she saw the female's jaws drop slightly and their eyes widen, though she smirked as well, so there would unlikely be any cruel punishments for them if they did something.

"Oh, definitely," Kakashi agreed, pulling her over for a kiss before he adjusted his mask to be comfortable on his face and finished turning so that he was facing everybody.

"Smells like lunch is ready," Hinata said, checking the pot. "Looks like it too."

Sakura fetched out bowls and chopsticks, handing around the latter while Hinata filled the former.

"Shouldn't we be doing something about Dumbledore now that we're all here, rather than sitting and having lunch?" Harry asked, confused as he was handed a bowl of noodles in soup with vegetables and some meat. His confusion increased when he tried to handle the chopsticks. "How do these things work?"

The shinobi chuckled.

"Like this," Sakura demonstrated, showing the wizards how to hold the chopsticks, how to operate them and finally how to eat with them.

"As for Dumbledore," Fukurou said once everybody had at least managed to swallow their first mouthful. "We killed him last night."

The complete silence of utter shock lasted for exactly four seconds before Ron broke it by choking on his food and spluttering.

"What? How?"

"We are shinobi," Kakashi said, as though that explained everything. To anybody who knew what shinobi were, it did. Most of the wizards and witches did _not_ know.

"Shinobi guard, deliver, capture, retrieve, defend and assassinate. It is who we are and what we do," Fukurou said, adding to the explanation.

"We are shadows," Shikamaru added.

"We are disciplined," Hinata continued.

"We are the best," Sakura finished firmly.

Silence, shocked, confused and unsure, radiated from the wizards.

"They are also, frequently, expensive," Snape added flatly as he shook some of the soup off the noodles he currently held in his chopsticks before he brought them to his mouth. He was the only one of the magical community present who hadn't needed to watch the lesson on how to use the chopsticks before he started eating with them.

The shinobi openly laughed at that.

"Yes," Fukurou chuckled. "Though it does depend on the job we're doing. Missions that are outside of our country, like this one, or high risk, will generally cost more to the client."

George and Fred looked at each other.

"Since we asked you to come," Fred started.

"Does that make us the clients?" George finished.

"Normally, yes, it would," Fukurou answered. "Except that you made your request to me personally, and not the village, and as I brought the mission to our village leader, then I am the client who is paying for this mission."

The twins paled. They hadn't meant to do that to her.

"How much?" George asked.

"We'll pay you back," Fred added.

Fukurou calculated the conversion of currency between the two worlds, and then started considering out loud.

"Foreign, retrieval and destruction of items considered dangerous to the population due to connection to dangerous individual, assassination of said dangerous individual, assigned a three man cell of chuunin, also two jounin, time duration of, what, two weeks we've been here?" Fukurou asked.

"Eleven days only so far," Kakashi corrected mildly.

"Eleven days, also included capture, interrogation, and extensive healing of a prisoner to gain needed information," Fukurou pinched her nose and closed her eyes, tilting her head back. "That's an A-class mission, easily, possibly S-class. If I deduct the value of the thestrals from the final price, then... I'd say twenty galleons even on provision of another pair of thestrals in five years, so that I can introduce new blood to the herd I intend to build," she said in finality.

"That's a very good price," Snape advised. "Owl is paying for this on her village records, so your debt is owed to her. That she is requesting most of her payment in the form of an animal most in our culture fear and dislike is a very good thing."

"It's a deal," the twins said together, sticking out their hands to shake on it.

Fukurou slapped her hand into theirs and gripped from the other side as well, so that she had skin-to-skin contact with both brothers.

"Twenty galleons now, two thestrals in five years," she said firmly.

They shook on it.

~oOo~

In the house on Quirn Street, there was an initial fuss over a hoard of missing hats, and then another when Albus Dumbledore was found with his head separated from his neck. Clearly by process no wizard in history had previously used, and further more that the neck was healed over so that, even if stitching was done and his soul called back into his body, it would not be able to knit the flesh back together.

The complete strangeness of his death confused his followers, and as puppets whose strings have been cut of their puppeteer, they did not know what to do but wait for the puppeteer to return and fix them, continuing in the mean time as they had done when they had not been consciously following the man's directions. Though for Molly and Arthur Weasley, their decision to believe and follow Albus over Harry had irrevocably torn the younger children from them. The Burrow would never again be filled with all of their offspring.

The wizards and witches returned to their usual residences once more. Harry was living in the house left to him by his godfather, Sirius Black, on a day-to-day basis. Ron and Ginny had moved in with him, permanently. In one part because they worried for his mental health after the whole thing. The other reason was because Ginny had it bad for Harry, who was getting a clue and beginning to return the feelings, and Ron was the permanent chaperone for his little sister and his best friend.

Lupin returned to his little house in the country with Tonks, where Fukurou had first found them only a short month ago, just before the chuunin selection examination had begun, and asked for his help with the map that was hanging in her office pretending to be a piece of poetry.

Severus and Minerva had their duties at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and so returned there, sending out letters to those who had not yet heard that Dumbledore was once again and finally put to complete rest.

The Daily Prophet had a field day, not being able to find the people who had committed the actual deed, and couldn't pin it on Harry and his friends as they all had a large amount of witnesses stating that they were no where near the place when it happened.

It had been so much easier than fighting Voldemort, and Harry knew it was because they had all learned from fighting Voldemort. Well, that and Dumbledore hadn't really been big on the muggle terrorising, which helped. The old headmaster was manipulative and conniving, a person who had once been good and then slowly rotted, but he was not evil. He also had tried hiding his _horcrux_ in plain sight, entrusting the knowledge of where and what they were to his best friend, believing – in fact knowing – that Alistor Moody was able to withstand torture spells for long enough that most wizards would give up trying to break him.

It also seemed that shinobi were simply better at dealing with a situation like this one than a wizard would be, and far superior in their methods of interrogation.

~oOo~

Fukurou sighed. If only she'd handled the whole thing like a shinobi, rather than having to pretend to be a regular student, all those years ago when she had been given the mission. Voldemort would likely have been a lot easier to kill if she had, but Harry and Ron wouldn't have become so tough, even if they were still, comparatively speaking, complete wimps. If only their little advantage over the rest of the wizarding world hadn't also meant that they would get that little bit full of their own greatness.

She decided to sit them down with Moody before she left, and have the man tell them everything that she and her team had done to him. It might put some fear of the world back in them, and remind them that it had not been _them_ who had defeated Dumbledore, the only wizard that Voldemort had feared. What good was magic, after all, if they were walking down a London street and they got shot? Not a bit, and as she prodded Moody with a kunai, they learned that.

From the ashen green looks on their faces as they listened to the man and looked back and forth between him and Fukurou, they learned that very well.

~oOo~

Fred and George were returning to the apartment they lived in above their shop, and the shinobi went with them. Fukurou had to get her money from them after all, and get it exchanged at Gringotts into her own currency. Then would come the part that Kakashi was looking forward to the least, as well as the rest of Team 9.

The portkey home.

Seeing their faces when she told them that as they walked towards the wizarding bank with the money from the Weasley twins, Fukurou sighed and divided it up between them. Five galleons to each member of Team 9 and to Kakashi may or may not go very far, depending on what they bought, but she was pleased to see all four of them go weaving through the crowds in search of a second hand book shop. She followed them in when they finally found one.

Sakura picked out a couple of books that were filled with healing spells and potions, moving quickly to the man at the counter to begin the process of haggling down the prices of her purchases, which had Fukurou just about beaming with pride in the girl. She would make an excellent medic-nin, did already in fact, and she would only get better.

Hinata, Fukurou observed, was drifting around the books that explained charms, transfiguration, and runes. She smiled and went to help her pick out the most comprehensive and helpful book on each of those subjects before sending her to get Sakura's help with haggling down the price. It seemed that their pinkette had quite the gift for driving prices down. Just like her old sensei.

Shikamaru was looking at potions books, which surprised Fukurou a bit. She wouldn't have picked him as a potion sort of person. Then the boy turned around and started looking at the next shelf, which had books about magical creatures, arithmancy and divination along it. When he pulled down a slim volume on magical creatures, and a thick one on arithmancy, Fukurou smiled. He'd just been making his way through systematically until he found something that caught his eye it seemed.

Kakashi was browsing the old diaries of dead wizards, occasionally taking one down and flicking through it, and replacing it again.

"Anything interesting in those?" Fukurou asked, tucking her chin over his upper left arm so that she could try and read over his shoulder.

"Some interesting discoveries, a few adventures, mostly nothing though," he answered sadly, putting back the last one he had been holding. "I hope that you don't think that I didn't notice how you didn't leave yourself with any money when you decided to treat all of us as a pay-off for sending us through portkeys," he added, turning slightly and looping his arms around her.

"Did that make sense?" Fukurou asked, laughing quietly as she spoke.

"I noticed that you kept no money back for yourself," Kakashi rephrased, though he knew she had gotten the meaning perfectly clearly the first time he had said it.

"Hm, and what are you going to do about it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Buy something for you instead," he said firmly.

"Well, there's a potion in one of those books over there that I'd like to learn how to make," Fukurou said, jerking her head in the direction of the shelf filled to slightly overflowing with books of potion recipes.

"Go and get it then," he ordered gently, brushing his masked lips over her forehead tenderly.

Fukurou chuckled and, when he released her, went to do just that, searching thoroughly before she finally found the one book with the greatest number of potions that she wanted to learn how to make contained between its covers.

When she got back to Kakashi, he had also picked out a book, one that looked to Fukurou like it belonged in a regular, muggle-world book shop than one in the magical world, so she had no idea how he had found it here. It said on the cover _Caring for Your Horse_.

"I thought you might be able to apply some of the principles to your new thestrals," he suggested meekly, noticing that she had seen the book he was holding. He hadn't actually looked inside, but he still figured it couldn't hurt.

Fukurou shook her head at him tenderly and drew him into the magical beasts section of the book shop, where she scanned the titles until she came to one that said, very clearly _Thestrals; History, Habits, and Needs_. This book she took down from the shelf and presented to Kakashi with a tender, loving smile, pleased that he had thought of her when he was looking through the books.

"They are pretty, aren't they?" she asked quietly, turning to an (unmoving) artist's rendition of the creature – photography, even and perhaps particularly wizard photography – was unreliable for these animals.

Kakashi nodded his agreement as he ran a finger along the neck and back of the creature in the drawing.

"There's no creature like them in the Elemental Countries," he said. "There are going to be some people who are very scared of these," he added, and there was a chuckling smirk in his voice.

"Yeah," Fukurou agreed, somewhat dreamily. "Isn't it wonderful?"

Kakashi laughed, quietly as they were in a book shop, but he laughed all the same.

"Who are you hoping to scare my love?" he asked.

"Hyashi," she answered instantly. "And maybe Ibiki-sensei as well. If I can ruffle Ibiki-sensei then I'll be very pleased with myself. Maybe I'll finally give the Hokage that heart attack at last too."

Kakashi laughed again, shaking his head as he took their books to the register to haggle and pay for them.


	30. Chapter 30

When the shinobi returned to their village, landing firmly and safely on their feet, and once Fred had taken the portkey back to Diagon Alley, they reported to the Hokage building to give the report of their completed mission.

"You have paid for this mission to go ahead, Uchiha Fukurou," the Hokage said, frowning slightly as he spoke. "Were you pleased with the conduct of the team?"

"I was pleased, and proud of them, Hokage-sama. Team 9 are utterly professional shinobi. Their targets knew nothing of their presence, they came and went in silence and shadow, inconspicuous among the crowd. I could have asked nothing more of them than what they gave, for they gave the very best," Fukurou answered earnestly. "They took the strangeness of the world they were suddenly plunged into easily in their stride. I would recommend this team for just about anything at this point sir."

The Hokage nodded.

"Zabuza-san already saw to the transfer of funds from the Uchiha account, so the mission has been paid for in your absence. Did you acquire your own satisfactory recompense from these wizards for your services to them?" Sarutobi asked.

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Then that will be all. You are dismissed, and relieved of missions for the next three days, though make sure you still train. It would be unseemly for such an exemplary team to become slothful and fall backwards," the old man warned, a chuckle in his voice to let them know he was making fun at them.

Obediently, they all chuckled quietly with him, leaving when he nodded his dismissal.

"So, what first now that you're home?" Fukurou asked her team.

"I have deer to check on," Shikamaru said, clearly not as enthusiastic for the creatures as he had once been. "See you for training tomorrow?" he asked.

"Nine-thirty," Fukurou answered, "Training ground nine. We'll do regular training until half-past one, break for lunch, and then I'll guide you through some more wand stuff."

Shikamaru nodded his understanding and, with a wave, set off towards his home.

"I'm going to visit Shino-kun once I've dropped my bag at home and reassured Mama that I'm alright," Sakura said, blushing ever so slightly. "I should thank him for the acid that I got to use on the mission."

Fukurou nodded. "That's a really good idea," she said. "Thank him for me too, will you? I shall have to remember the effect of watching a removed body-part melt away into nothing for the next time I get the chance to interrogate somebody."

Sakura twitched a smile and nodded, not in the least put out by the graphic description. She had been rather fascinated with it herself.

"See you tomorrow Fukurou-sensei, Hinata-chan!" she called as she ran off.

Hinata lingered a little longer before she spoke up.

"Fukurou-sensei, when I told Otou-sama that I had a mission in another country, and that it would probably be dangerous, he said that he did not expect me to return," Hinata said. "He made it sound like a good thing."

Fukurou sighed deeply. She had both anticipated this day and hoped that it would not come.

"Kakashi, will you wait for me a while? Hinata and I have some things to say to Hyuuga-sama," Fukurou asked, a gentle hand laid on Hinata's shoulder comfortingly.

Kakashi looked between teacher and ex-student, then nodded. "I'll see if I can find Yamato and my team, and join in their training for the rest of the day," he said. He took a step closer and wrapped an arm around her, kissing the corner of her mouth through his mask gently. "I'll see you at the Uchiha estate at dinner time, alright?"

"Hm," she answered, nodding. "Thank you."

Kakashi smiled and jumped up onto a ledge protruding from a nearby building, and from there jumping further up so hat he was running along the rooftops that lined the streets, searching for where his team could be.

"Alright Hinata-chan, let's you and me go and see your father about the way he's been treating you, and see if we can't get him to see sense," Fukurou said, urging the girl forward.

Hinata smiled gratefully and, with the comfort and support of her sensei at her side, headed to the Hyuuga estate.

~oOo~

"Hey, it's Hinata-hime!" Kiba called out, spotting the girl as she was walking by on the street with Uchiha-sama.

They both turned at the yell and paused in their walking, clearly waiting for him to approach, and from the smiles, it didn't look like they minded his company.

"Hey, you're back!" he yelled again, running over and wrapping his arms around the shorter of the two females. "Me and Akamaru missed you," Kiba stated, the puppy standing at his heels barking and wagging his tail happily.

"It's good to see you as well Kiba-kun," Hinata said, smiling happily from within his embrace.

Fukurou quietly knelt and picked up Akamaru, stepping back from the two young chuunin.

"I think we'd better give those two some space, eh Akamaru-kun?" she asked the puppy with a chuckle.

Akamaru barked and smiled, which she took to be agreement.

"How have things been with you?" Hinata asked when he let go of her enough for them to talk comfortably.

"Oh, you know, the usual; training, missions – C-rank mostly, and sometimes helping out Hana-Onee in the vet clinic, which is very educational," Kiba said with a slight grimace towards the end.

The face he pulled made Hinata giggle at him.

"You have a very loving family," she said wistfully.

"Yeah, when they're around," Kiba agreed. "Hey, would you like to come over for dinner one night this week? The Inuzuka compound is a bit of a mad house, but we're all pretty safe, and very friendly," he offered.

Hinata beamed up at him.

"I would like that very much, Kiba-kun," Hinata answered. "Thank you."

"I hate to break up the party," Fukurou said, guessing that would probably be the best time to do the dreaded deed, "but Hinata-chan and I need to talk to Hyuuga-sama. You two can flirt later, alright?"

Both of the kids blushed, but nodded, and Kiba took Akamaru back from Fukurou.

"I- I'll see you around Hinata-chan," Kiba called as she walked away with her sensei.

"Definitely!" she called back, with a smile and a wave over her shoulder.

"Now there's a boy with more brains than Naruto-chan," Fukurou said, smiling, "and he's got a crush on you the size of Wind country. Not to mention he's handsome."

"Fu-Fukurou-sensei!" Hinata exclaimed, clearly embarrassed at the older woman's teasing.

"He's a good catch," Fukurou insisted. "I've even heard that among the Inuzuka, when they fall in love, they're stuck that way, and can't ever fall in love with anybody else. He's a good boy from a fine clan, so I think you should consider this very seriously. Of course, we have a few years to work you up to being able to tell your father to go squat in a bush and get over his pure-Hyuuga-blood ideals. Right now we have other things to tell him, don't we Hinata?"

Hinata looked up at her team leader, having heard her name without the suffix of '-chan' that Fukurou-sensei usually implemented. That level look, the one that she had seen Fukurou-sensei share with Zabuza-san, who she knew was viewed by the older woman as an equal, was now directed at her, and Hinata realised exactly what the older woman meant with that gaze.

"Hai... Fukurou-senpai," Hinata answered.

Fukurou smiled. That's right, she was no longer this girl's teacher, though she would still continue to share her knowledge and would continue as the team leader. They were nearly equal.

They arrived at the gates of the Hyuuga estate.

Hinata ducked straight in, smiling at Fukurou as she left the older woman to deliver formalities to the guards, intending to get at least a little bit freshened up before she would be summoned to the meeting that the last remaining Uchiha female was requesting.

"I am Uchiha Fukurou, head of the Uchiha clan, and I formally request an audience with Hyuuga Hyashi, Hyuuga Hinata, Hyuuga Hanabi and Hyuuga Neji. I would also most respectfully request that Lady Hyuuga be present as well if her health will allow it," Fukurou said to the two Hyuuga nin standing guard just within the gates. When neither man moved to convey the request, she narrowed her eyes. "_Now_, if you please," she added forcefully.

One of the men left then, and shortly after a young woman who was doubtlessly of the branch family – though Fukurou suspected that there was no longer any seal beneath the band she wore across her forehead – came to guide her through the halls of the Hyuuga estate to a large room with a long, thin table across the middle and cushions to sit upon. Fukurou settled in and meditated while the girl made tea for her and they waited for the Hyuuga family members she had requested.

Hinata, Hanabi and Neji arrived together. Hyashi was still nowhere to be seen though.

They sat down silently with Fukurou, and when she smiled at them without opening her eyes, they all smiled as well.

"How is your mother, Hanabi-chan?" Fukurou asked softly. "I had heard she was not well, has she improved at all recently?"

"Only mildly, Fukurou-sama," Hanabi answered politely. "Some days she is able to go for a short walk now. It is not much, but she smiles more on the days she can manage it."

"I am gladdened to hear of Lady Hyuuga's improvement, and hope for her health to completely recover," Fukurou said, genuinely.

"I thank you, Uchiha-sama," a female voice said from the sliding door, as it opened. A frail looking, but smiling woman appeared standing there. Despite her obvious frailty, she was also beautiful. "I hope for my complete recovery as well, but Hyashi refuses to let medic-nin from outside the family look at me, and we have so few with proper training in that area within the family."

Fukurou rose and bowed. "Lady Hyuuga, you honour me," she said.

"No, Uchiha-sama, I am honoured to finally meet the woman who has been teaching and training my eldest daughter, and please, call me Hoshi," she said, as she carefully, and with the gentle assistance of her daughters, sat down at the table.

"If you will call me Fukurou," she said, smiling at the older woman.

Hoshi smiled. "I think I can do that, Fukurou-sama."

Fukurou smiled. "It truly is my honour to meet you at last Hoshi-sama," she said.

"For someone so honoured, you are being very familiar, Uchiha-san," a male voice said from the door that Hoshi had appeared at. Hyashi, and he was frowning.

"I asked her to be Hyashi," Hoshi said gently, "and you are being disrespectful to a clan head, not to mention _late_."

Hyashi's frown deepened, but he remained silent to that and sat down beside his wife.

"I apologise for visiting you on such short notice, Hyuuga-sama," Fukurou said, bowing her head slightly to the man in respect to his station. "However, I felt it was vitally important that you be made aware of your daughter Hinata's conduct since she became my student, and graduated from my tutelage."

"I have nothing to say about Hinata's conduct on your team that you should feel the need to report to me," Hyashi said sternly. "I remember telling you that she would be only a burden. I do not require an interview with you to simply confirm what I said a year ago."

"Hyashi!" Hoshi said, shocked and appalled at her husband, that he would say such things at all, but particularly that he would say them in front of their daughters and nephew. She looked around at the children and their guest, surprised to see polite smiles on all of their faces but Hanabi's, whose smile was more like a child who was sneaking away from the kitchen with a stolen treat and trying not to laugh and give themselves away.

"Hyuuga-sama, allow me to pose a couple of questions to you; of these three children, who, a year ago, had the strongest byakugan?" Fukurou asked.

"Neji," he answered, frowning. "It is indeed a shame that he is a branch member and so must suffer from the curse seal, with as much potential as he had."

Neji's smile did not falter. This little interview was Fukurou-san's show, and she was entitled to it, he was just glad she had invited him to come for the ride. It was going to be great.

"And of your own two daughters, at that same time?" Fukurou asked.

"Hanabi. By miles she surpasses Hinata," Hyashi answered firmly.

"Who of them all, Hyuuga-sama, do you spend the most time training?"

Hoshi was starting to catch on to Fukurou's game, and was becoming amused herself. Silently, she bit her lip gently before schooling her own face into the same polite smile that she and her daughters had been taught in the Academy, and that her nephew seemed to have picked up.

"Hanabi. I see no reason to waste time on a failure such as Hinata, or on one who cannot be great because of his predestined fate," he said, frowning once again.

"Would Hanabi be able to defeat Neji, when you have trained her yourself, and yet his byakugan is stronger than hers?" Fukurou asked.

"Not yet," he conceded. "But soon."

"Hyuuga-sama, did you enjoy taking Hanabi-san to the chuunin examination this year?"

"I had no desire to go for myself, but believed it would be educational for Hanabi to watch," he said, providing what he likely believed to be an answer to the question, though he had, in fact, not answered it, which Fukurou pointed out.

"I asked a yes or no question, Hyuuga-sama, not a request of your reasoning," she said.

"No. I did not," he said, a slight growl entering his voice.

"Because the fights were not to your taste, perhaps, or because you would have preferred to _send_ Hanabi-san rather than take her?"

"It is true that the fights were not to my taste. Fighting is necessary, not for entertainment," he said, avoiding the second part of the question.

"So it had nothing to do with the fact that your nephew, who you attest has the strongest byakugan of these three exemplary Hyuugas, was defeated very soundly by your eldest daughter, who you have declared openly to be the weakest of all," Fukurou said, her face wearing that smile of polite enquiry, rather than the smirk she wanted to display to this foolishly blind man.

Hyashi's eyes narrowed, and he did not answer.

"Or that you are barely interested in either of your children on a personal level, as long as the one you have chosen lives up to your expectations, and the one who you have discarded lives down to them," she continued, the same polite smile on her face, as though she weren't criticising him at all.

The girl from the branch family who had escorted Fukurou to the room took that moment of stretched out, slightly cold and very tense silence to tactfully serve the tea.

"Oh, thank you very much," Fukurou said to the girl, accepting the cup with delight and breathing deeply of the hot beverage's aroma.

"Is there a reason for this charade?" Hyashi demanded as Fukurou sipped gently at her tea.

"Charade, Hyuuga-sama?" Fukurou asked, apparently completely surprised. "I happen to be very fond of tea," she said, again with her polite smile, though when she directed it to Hoshi it was more genuine.

Hyashi frowned as everybody at the table drank from their tea cups, leaving his where it sat on the coaster before him.

"Hyuuga-sama, is it possible for a member of your family with a weaker byakugan to defeat someone with a stronger byakugan?" Fukurou asked when she had half-drained her tea cup.

"No." Never mind what he had said earlier about Hanabi not being able to best Neji yet, but that he was certain that soon she would be able to.

"Then Hinata-san must have a stronger byakugan than Neji-san," Fukurou said, allowing his slip and continuing on. "As she defeated him in the chuunin examination."

"That is different," Hyashi said, brushing it aside. "Hinata is of the main house, Neji is of the branch family. It is his pre-destined fate that he cannot use his full ability, particularly against a member of the main family."

"Neji-san, before Hinata graduated from the Academy, had you sparred with her?"

"Yes, Uchiha-sama."

"Who usually won between you, Hinata-san?"

"Neji-san did, Uchiha-sama."

"The cursed seal's restrictions were not an issue at that time?" Fukurou enquired.

Both shook their heads.

"I see. Hyuuga-sama, I wonder why does their experience disagree with your statement? No, you do not need to answer that question," Fukurou assured the man, "but I would like to know if you would accept a challenge to fight from Hinata-san."

Hyashi shook his head. "She is not worth my time to fight her," he stated firmly.

"I watched as Hinata-san incapacitated over ten people in under ten seconds on her most recent mission," Fukurou stated, her polite smile never flinching. "It was Hinata-san who discovered the location of the man we were able to collect information from, and it as Hinata-san who was able to see through twelve layers of unfamiliarly built, foreign genjutsu to locate our target. Though I suspect, Hyuuga-sama, that you do not care."

"Hinata is weak. She has always been timid and weak," Hyashi stated. "I see no possibility of this every changing."

"Then you should probably get your eyes checked," Fukurou said, the polite smile not so much as twitching the tiniest bit as she said that, and her tone politically pleasant, as though she were only commenting upon the weather.

The younger Hyuugas and Hoshi all had to bite their tongues to stop from laughing.

"Hyashi," Hoshi said, when she was certain that she was in control of herself. "I wish for you to fight my daughter."

"I will not. I would only be forced to correct her stances every time that she flinches away," he said stolidly, firmly, with determined resolve and perhaps even a touch of anger.

"Otou-sama, I will not flinch," Hinata said calmly.

"You have always flinched," Hyashi said, fixing his eyes on her. "You flinch and you look away."

"I am not flinching, nor am I looking away _now_," Hinata pointed out, returning her father's look.

He appeared to ignore this statement and returned his own gaze to Fukurou.

"She is weak," he stated.

"She is strong," Fukurou answered, levelly, smiling.

"She cannot be relied upon."

"As the sun can be relied upon to rise every morning, so I am able to rely on her."

"She will amount to nothing!" Hyashi growled.

"Someday, Hinata-san must rule this clan," Fukurou answered, "and she will likely be the best, and most loved leader this clan has every seen."

"She will _not_ rule my clan," Hyashi stated. "I refuse."

"So you will cripple your daughter? Your clan?"

"Hanabi will rule the clan," the man said.

"No. I don't want to if Hinata-onee does."

Hyashi was surprised to see that it was Hanabi who had spoken out against him, but did not get long to consider this before his other daughter spoke.

"Actually, I like the idea," Hinata said, calmly. "I think I've studied every scroll in our library anyway. It is time perhaps that I moved on to another."

"I forbid it!" Hyashi growled.

"You forbid a great deal Otou-sama, particularly my doing anything," Hinata observed quietly.

Fukurou turned and gestured for the girl to pour more tea into her cup. The stage had shifted now, and it was Hinata's turn.

"I find your negativity towards me," Hinata paused, searching for the right word, and mentally smirked when she picked it out, "troublesome." Thus saying, the girl rose from her seat gracefully. "Otou-sama, today I will teach you something about me. I do not care if you close your eyes and refuse to see. I do not care if you close your ears and refuse to hear," she said, walking calmly to her father, stopping before him and gathering chakra in her hands, forming seals quickly.

"You do not know the juinjutsu," Hyashi said, his eyes only just able to see what the blurred hands were forming.

"Yes Otou-sama, I do," Hinata stated calmly, forming the last seal and placing it upon her father's forehead with the two fingers of her left hand. "I have even made some _improvements_."

Neji raised an eyebrow at that. Hinata and Hanabi had expressed their desire to free the branch house of the curse seal, he had not expected Hinata to fiddle with the jutsu that created it.

"It is cruel," Hinata said as the pale green lines formed on her father's head, "that this seal _forces_ members of our clan into servitude and restricts their ability. I don't mind so much if it locks the byakugan away in death so that it cannot be stolen and studied, it is a frustration to our enemies when this happens. So I have found a way to separate the two elements of the juinjutsu. Now, I can apply a jutsu that, upon death, locks away our bloodline, and does nothing else. _That_ will not even leave a mark. That is not what I am doing to you now, Otou-sama. To you, I give only the other half of the juinjutsu," Hinata stated solemnly, "and while it grieves me, I feel that I must do it."

She withdrew her fingers, and the cursed seal of the Hyuuga clan lay bright upon the forehead of Hyuuga Hyashi.

Hinata turned to the branch member who had served the tea.

"Have you seen the seal that activates this?" she asked gently.

The girl nodded, shifting uncomfortably.

"Would you perform it?" Hinata requested.

The girl's eyes grew wide with fright and she shook her head.

Hinata nodded her understanding and waved at her to calm herself. "You have great compassion," she told the girl. "Neji-san?"

He nodded and formed the seal.

Hyashi crumbled slightly, and clutched at his forehead.

"I am sorry Otou-sama," Hinata said sincerely as she watched him, "but I will not be defined by you any longer."

"My little Hinata-chan," Hoshi said, a hand over her heart as she looked up at her daughter. "You are all grown up," she observed, tearing up slightly.

"Okaa-san, my team mate Sakura is a very good medic-nin, I would like to invite her to visit you," Hinata said, kneeling once more and taking her mother's hands in hers. "May I invite her?"

Hoshi nodded, smiling broadly.

"How did this happen?" Hyashi demanded, his white glare moving from Hinata to Neji.

"Neji-san, show Otou-sama what you and Onee-san and I did!" Hanabi said, smiling brightly.

"Hai, hai," Neji said as he smiled obligingly for his cousin and removed his Konohagakure headband. He bore no more seal on his brow, and seeing the absence creased a frown on Hyashi's face.

"How did that happen?" he growled.

"We searched the clan scrolls," Hinata answered, as though it was obvious. "Then we searched the Uchiha clan's scrolls, with Uchiha-sama's permission of course," Hinata continued. "Next we talked to Uchiha-sama, and she found us an expert on seals who helped, and then we fiddled, and tinkered, and finally we found a way."

Neji took that as a cue to nod to the serving girl, recommending she also remove her headband. As his was, her brow held no curse mark that would have her recognised as a member of the branch house of the Hyuuga.

"Hanabi and I slowly removed the curse seal from everybody," Hinata explained to her father, whose eyes were growing wide with shock and fury, despite the pain he was still feeling. "They continued to wear their headbands, bandannas, head scarves, wraps, and their long fringes. Only where before they hid the mark that was imposed upon them by you and the elders of this clan from the rest of Konoha, now they have been hiding from you that they are _free_."

Hyuuga Hyashi turned from his daughter to Fukurou, a deep scowl on his face.

"You," he growled. "You did this! You brainwashed my entire clan into revolt! I will take you before the Hokage for this!"  
Hinata blinked and looked from her father to Fukurou. It seemed even now he was unable to credit her with anything, nor recognise fault in himself. Neji, Hanabi and Hoshi looked at the head of the Uchiha clan also, wondering how the woman would take the insults and threats.

One second of silence, two seconds, three... Fukurou bit her lips together, she raised a hand to her mouth, she tried so hard to keep in the laughter, but even though she smothered it, eventually the laughter broke free, and it was the laughter of someone who has been tickled or told an excellent joke, or told an excellent joke while they are being tickled.

It was too funny to her, and she could no longer hold back, but simply had to laugh at the man's deliberate ignorance.

"I will be glad to see the Hokage, though I do not know what you will accuse me of," she said when she had finally calmed down to giggles.

"You threatened me when I was leaving your estate, after warning you of Hinata's inevitable failure. You said that -"

"I said, that if you push your daughter, and she finds out how you strive to cripple her," Fukurou interrupted, serious now. "Then you should be wary of your daughter returning the favour. You have said very clearly in this little interview exactly how you have been neglecting and destroying your children, indeed, your entire clan."

"I know you studied that foreign _magic_ stuff," Hyashi accused. "You put some kind of curse -"

"I did no such thing Hyuuga-sama. I showed you the utmost respect the whole time. I was even so kind as to read a little bit of character out for you. It is not magic, Hyuuga-sama, and honestly I have no talent for seeing the future anyway, but I had returned home to see my brother killing my father. You resemble my father in many ways, it was not such a great leap of imagination to suppose that you would receive a similar justice eventually," Fukurou said, getting up. "Hoshi-sama, would you like some help back to your room before I go? As I believe Neji-san will not be letting Hyuuga-sama completely recover for a while yet."

Hoshi extended a hand to Fukurou and smiled.

"Thank you very much Fukurou-sama," the woman said, rising with the other woman's help and walking out the door, leaning on her arm. "I love my husband, truly I do, but in recent years he has changed, and is no longer the man that he was. Left here if you please. I had long seen that something – this one here on the right, thank you – that something like this was going to happen eventually, and that it had to. Hyashi was becoming blind to the potential of people. That is never a good thing in a man who is supposed to be a leader of his clan," Hoshi said, lowering herself – with help from Fukurou – onto her futon. "Thank you, and thank you again for being a guide for my little Hinata."

"It has truly been my honour and pleasure," Fukurou assured Hoshi.

Hoshi smiled gently and, wearied from the excitement of the day, drifted off to sleep, content that enough was well in the world that she would sleep soundly and in the knowledge that tomorrow would be bright, and her daughters, and possibly even her dear nephew, would be able to smile genuinely for her.


	31. Chapter 31

When Fukurou finally returned home, Sasuke instantly attached himself to her side.

"Fuu-nee-san!" he cried happily, smiling broadly. "A man in funny clothes came with some strange animals, and he gave a scroll to Itachi-nii and Zabuza-san, and then the strange man waved a wand like yours and a training ground extended and the building some of our cousins lived in turned into a stable like the inns have for merchant's horses, and the man in the funny clothes left the strange animals and Naruto can't see them!"

"I don't see what the fuss is about," the blond boy grumbled as he also came to welcome Fukurou back.

"Sasuke-chan, those animals are called thestrals, and only people who have seen someone die can see them. I'm going to breed them," Fukurou explained. "Where is the rest of our family?"

"Itachi-san is trying to figure out what they eat, he's not been having much luck," Haku said, appearing on the front porch. "I think that these odd looking horses are becoming disdainful of him."

"They are carnivorous," Fukurou said. "I can't believe Snape-san didn't mention it."

"I will inform Itachi-san directly," Haku said, turning back to go through the house, but stopped just before going in. "Also, we have a visitor from Sunagakure, who has been fascinated by your new pets since she arrived four hours ago."

"A guest?" Fukurou asked, following with the two genin at her sides.

"You will like this visitor, Fuu-nee-san," Sasuke said happily.

"I think Shikamaru will like her more," Naruto added, "as soon as he finds out she's here."

Fukurou smiled, that meant only one person really, and she smiled to see Temari sitting on the porch, staring at the thestrals and gently swinging her legs.

Zabuza was standing back, watching Itachi trying to give the animals feed that he had purchased from the Nara clan.

"They like meat apparently, Itachi-san," Haku said, bringing forward a slab of pork that had likely been intended for the Uchiha family to eat that night, and offering it to the thestrals, who happily tore into it with their sharp teeth.

Naruto finally got to see real proof of the animals, as lumps of the meat were torn away and disappeared. He stood gaping until well after all the meat was gone. It took Sasuke calling him an idiot for him to snap out of it.

"Hello Temari-san, I had not expected to see you back in Konohagakure so soon after the chuunin exams," Fukurou said, sitting down by the younger woman.

Temari nodded. "I am a peace envoy from Gaara, who has become the new Kazekage," she said.

Fukurou whistled, impressed. "Quite an achievement for anybody, particularly someone as young as Gaara-san."

Temari shrugged. "The criteria for the job are that he be the strongest and that he should care about Sunagakure's prosperity. There's something I need to discuss with you though, Uchiha-sama."

"Oh dear, we're being official," Fukurou said, rolling her eyes and smiling wryly. "Very well, I am listening Temari-sama."

The young woman giggled. "Gaara's idea was that Konoha and Suna have an exchange of shinobi. If there is a Sand-nin in Leaf, and a Leaf-nin in Sand, on a permanent to semi-permanent basis, then our relationship as allies would be strengthened, as well as our villages."

"So, you're here, and..." Fukurou smiled. "Kankuro would be excited if Haku would be the Konoha representative to Sand?" she suggested.

Temari smiled slightly, nodding.

"He is skilled as a shinobi, unattached to a team, and very loyal to your family. If he would be willing to go, it would be a perfect arrangement," Temari said.

"Have you asked Haku?" Fukurou said. "His strongest techniques are related to using ice by combining wind and _water_ chakra after all."

"We will not be asking Haku-san to fight or take missions for Sunagakure," Temari said. "He would be a political figure, and likely teach students in our Academy, rather than be a battlefield shinobi."

Fukurou nodded. That would be the wisest course for Haku if he were to go to Wind country, but the question remained, "Have you spoken to Haku-san about this?"

Temari looked at the boy who was now stroking the thestral's manes, as they had finished the meat he had brought them.

"He said that he would be honoured, but that it was the decision of his clan head and of Konohagakure's Hokage," Temari answered.

"He's a smart boy," Fukurou said fondly. "Well, I suggest we go see the Hokage and get him to okay the whole thing."

Temari smiled. "Actually, he already has, we just needed your okay. He said that if you refused Haku being chosen, then something would have to be worked out with another of Konoha's shinobi, but that he didn't mind if it was satisfactory to you."

Fukurou chuckled. "Smart old coot," she said fondly, "and he didn't even say anything when I was in his office earlier."

Haku was informed and happily packing within the hour. Apparently, being separated from Kankuro for almost a fortnight was just what he needed to realise how much he had come to care for, and enjoy the company of, the painted puppeteer.

~oOo~

Fukurou was using some of her three days off from missions to train with the thestrals, along with making sure that her team kept up their training, as well as teaching them more about magic. But spending time with the magical creatures was as much fun as it was hard work. Of course, there were certain _upsides_ to these times, and once those three days were over, Fukurou took to supervising within-village missions for a little while, to keep working with the magical creatures she had acquired.

One of these upsides had come when Hyashi had arrived at the Uchiha complex while she was on her way to feed her beauties. Itachi had brought the Hyuuga to the stables, where Fukurou was. He was curious about the man's reaction to carnivorous reptilian horses, and had decided not to escort the man to the office room that his sister usually received him in.

The Hyuuga was suitably disturbed by the time Fukurou acknowledged his presence and took him away from the stable.

"Carnivorous creatures from foreign places in the middle of the village?" he demanded sharply, though he seemed a little smug also. "Demonic creatures that would no doubt prey upon the villagers at a moments notice? When I go to the Hokage this afternoon, be sure that I will be reporting this as well, Uchiha-san," Hyashi sneered.

"Are you afraid of them?" Fukurou asked, curious, almost innocently. "The villagers aren't," she added. "I've walked them through the village centre and nobody minded."

Hyashi frowned and narrowed his eyes. "I find that hard to believe."

Fukurou smiled politely, but said nothing. Hyashi didn't need to know that the reason the civilians didn't mind her thestrals was because they couldn't see them, and the few who could, well, they could also see how tame they were around Fukurou, and didn't worry.

The Hokage arriving with Hyashi and Ibiki a week after this visit, to interrogate Fukurou and inspect these 'demonic beasts', at Hyuuga's request. Fukurou suspected they had really only given in to shut him up.

Ibiki talked with Fukurou first, while the Hokage was shown to the stables by Zabuza and Naruto. The blonde boy was carrying a bag of meat. He still couldn't see the creatures, but he _really_ liked watching their food disappear. The Hokage asked both of them questions about the animals, and then traded with Ibiki.

"Fukurou-san," Sarutobi said with a sigh as he sat down in front of her, taking off his hat and rubbing his balding crown. "Why do you do these things to me?" he asked.

Fukurou giggled behind her hand. "Because it's fun?" she offered.

"Animals that can only be seen by someone who has seen death, and known it? Really, what are you going to do with them? Zabuza-san said you were going to breed them, but why?" he demanded with a frown. He had _not_ been pleased with that answer.

"Because I think they're pretty," she answered, smiling a genuine smile, rather than her fixed polite one. "Because they're a comfortable ride and can fly very fast. Because they're highly intelligent. I think they'd be a great asset to Konoha," Fukurou told her Hokage.

Sarutobi sighed and leaned back. No heart-attack in sight, but she could yet give him cause to retire again and find a new Hokage. Actually, that might not be so fun for her. After all, she could sort of get away with pushing Sarutobi's buttons, as it were.

"And what about this I'm hearing about you turning the Hyuuga clan against Hyashi?" the old man asked, only a little sternly.

Fukurou scoffed. "He's a blind man. His children decided that without any hinting from me. I just hinted to _him_ that it could happen, and so he blames me. He's stubborn, and seems determined that Hinata is doomed to be a failure, whatever evidence there is to the contrary."

The Hokage nodded solemnly.

Ibiki returned then, grinning broadly. "I like them!" he declared.

Fukurou laughed. Of _course_ he did! Well, that was almost as good as getting him ruffled.

Sarutobi forced Hyashi's removal from his position as Head of the Hyuuga a month later. The recovered Lady Hoshi Hyuuga took his place ruling the clan, to everyone's delight, while Hinata was officially named heir to the clan – a position which she was free to renounce at any time should she so choose.

~oOo~

It was the time in Konohagakure when all who lived there, and those who were visiting, put on their favourite kimonos, slipped on their geta, and went out in the evening to enjoy the fireflies, the lanterns, and the cherry blossoms of the spring festival.

The Third was supposed to be making a grand announcement just before the fireworks as well, about stepping down – again – and naming the Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure. The Hokage had called a meeting a fortnight before. Clan heads and elders, shinobi of jounin and ANBU level, as well as the sanin – Jiraiya and Tsunade – were all in attendance. It had taken hours for a decision to be reached, but they finally had. Some of the council had still been grumbling when they left, but they had been overruled.

Right now though, as Fukurou watched the men of her clan getting caught up in their yukata and tangling their obi, she laughed and forgot about the announcement, focusing instead on helping them all become presentable.

Zabuza seemed to have managed everything well, except that the knot of his obi was ridiculously untidy, so she corrected it quickly for him, and he headed straight out. Haku was no longer in Konoha, so he felt no need to wait for his ward. The boy had grown up, and he was proud of him, but he also didn't want to be landed with babysitting Naruto and Sasuke around the festival.

Itachi had done an almost passable job of his clothing, except that he looked like he was going to a funeral rather that a festival. Fukurou picked out a yukata in a faded-navy blue and a pale grey obi, and instructed him to try again while she untangled the youngest Uchihas.

Naruto had twisted his around so that the rust-coloured yukata was bunched in the back and inside-out on one side. Sasuke's obi was trailing and tripping him, getting caught around every one of his limbs at once, also bunching his deep blue yukata.

"You need to know better how to do this," Fukurou told them both as she fixed their clothes. "What if you are hired to be hidden guards for a rich man with traditional tastes? It would not do well to wear your usual clothes then."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded, and watched closely. When they were tidy and she had given Itachi another check over, pronouncing him perfect and allowing him to leave to find Anko for their date that night, Fukurou then went to dress herself.

The white underwear first, then the coloured under-kimono – a rich but subtle golden yellow – and finally the over-robe, her red kimono with the Uchiha clan crest arranged along the bottom to look like stylised flowers, and a large white crane on her back, the Uchiha crest upon it's head. She was glad that owls had not been an option, or she would have been obliged to choose that, and she did like the elegant crane that was embroidered on in white, black and gold.

"Wow Fuu-nee-san," Sasuke said when she emerged, tucking her fan into the obi that matched her yellow under-kimono. "You're beautiful!"

Fukurou smiled and ruffled his hair. "Thank you Sasuke-chan," she said, "shall we go then?"

The boys nodded and headed for the gate, a little unsteady on their geta.

Kakashi stood there waiting for them, wearing a light forest-green yukata with a white-grey obi that matched his silver hair. His black mask was still in place.

"Good evening Kakashi-senpai," Sasuke said politely.

"Hello Kakashi-sensei," Naruto added.

"Good evening," he answered them.

"You may go on ahead," Fukurou told them, and the boys ran off as fast as they could on their stilted shoes.

"You're radiant," Kakashi said softly, and produced a hair ornament from his sleeve, which he gently slipped into her short, unadorned locks. "It was my mothers, I thought it might suit you," he added.

"Does it?" she asked, smiling gently.

"It looks nice," he confirmed, taking her arm and walking with her towards the streets were the festival was really happening. "It doesn't do you justice, but it does look nice."

Fukurou smiled and blushed slightly, and the couple spent most of the festival spotting the people they knew, in couples usually, as they wandered from stall to stall, just admiring the evening and the atmosphere.

Hinata had come to say hello to them, and Kiba had spotted her then, taking her attention completely away, and they absently linked arms together, Hinata's head resting on the boy's shoulder. Hanabi caught up to her older sister and was soon following them, carrying Akamaru so that neither of them would get lost in the crowds of people. The three were soon joined by Neji, who had his arm around Tenten, and Lee, who was happy to be Hanabi's escort for the evening with Kiba's puppy, though he was too old for her and she was not his type – or she was too young for him and he wasn't her type.

Sakura had waved to them as they walked past, but she had been sharing an ice cream with Shino, so they didn't stop to talk, merely smiling at the two as they kept going. They soon spotted Shikamaru and Temari, who were sharing dango at the same stall as Anko and Itachi, who were doing the same thing.

A little further on, Ino was trying to catch a turtle beside Chouji, who was having only slightly better luck with the easier target of a gold fish in the same stall. Kurenai and Asuma were standing behind the kids, smiling at the pair, though they didn't seem to realise how much they resembled the kids, in attitude if not appearances – Ino and Chouji were going to take a while longer to figure out just what was beginning to form between them at that time, while Asuma and Kurenai simply refused to admit the truth – at least publicly.

Fukurou caught sight of two shapes in a shaded corner between a couple of stalls and smiled to see Sasuke and Naruto pressed close together and breathing heavily, their foreheads resting together and their mouths looking slightly abused about an inch apart. Possibly their first kiss. It wouldn't help re-populate the clan, but she couldn't help but be happy for the two boys. They were just so cute like that together, and drove each other to improve faster when they were being competitive.

Kakashi steered her away from the festival – and all the other cute couples – and Fukurou was content to rest her head on his shoulder, forgetting about everything else while she was with him.

"Fukurou, will you become my wife tomorrow?" Kakashi asked as they stood together beneath a willow that was just beyond the main part of the festival, and small lights decorated its branches.

"You think you can find a priest that quickly?" she answered, smiling back up at him.

Kakashi smiled beneath his mask, picked her up and twirled her around happily.

Back at the festival, Sarutobi announced that Tsunade would become the Fifth Hokage, and as the fireworks started up, they thought they had found their own little happily ever after, even if it wasn't over yet, and even if life for the shinobi was rarely kind. Just then, life in Konoha was good, and that was enough.

~Omake~

Kakashi was wrapped up in the invisibility cloak that Fukurou had given him, and was stalking through the streets of Konohagakure, for once actually looking for Maito Gai. He had been leaving the Hokage building, intent on returning to the Uchiha estate and his wonderful, beautiful wife, when someone had called out for him, and asked him to deliver a scroll to the loud, crying-at-sunsets, green-leotard-wearing man.

He was glad he'd taken to carrying the invisibility cloak around with him. He really didn't want to be seen looking for the idiot.

Ah, there he was. Kakashi slipped the scroll out of his pocket, holding onto the end, and slipped it out of the cloak to tap Gai on the shoulder with it.

"EH!" the man exclaimed loudly when he saw the scroll, apparently just floating there. "What sort of jutsu is this?" he demanded.

Kakashi just shoved the scroll at the man and turned away, not removing the cloak. No way he would reveal himself while he was still so near to his self-proclaimed rival.

When he reached the Uchiha gates and entered, he was still wearing it, so he was surprised to hear a voice calling out "Kakashi-san's back Fukurou-senpai!"

Looking around, he spotted Hinata, staring straight at him and smiling.

"I can still see your chakra pathways, Kakashi-san, even if I can't see you," she told him with a smile.

He laughed as he lowered the hood.

"Important to know just who can see through it," he said. "I am very glad that Gai isn't a Hyuuga. Where is everybody?"

"Shika-kun is out the back with Temari-san and the thestrals, Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun went off _saying_ that they were going to spar, Itachi-san and Anko-san just left together for a mission, Sakura-chan is in the kitchen making a potion for Fukurou-senpai and Zabuza-san is watching her while he makes lunch for everybody," Hinata answered. "Kiba-kun and Shino-kun will be arriving soon with Ino-chan and Chouji-san who are doing grocery shopping."

"Is the morning sickness still bothering her?" he asked, concerned as he completely removed the cloak and began to fold it up, walking slowly towards Fukurou's room.

Hinata nodded and walked with him. "I thought you promised to never make her unhappy Kakashi-san," she accused.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I'm a man, it's inevitable I'll upset her sometimes," he said, opening the door to Fukurou's room. "I just try my best to always make it better again."

"Where have you been?" Fukurou called when she saw him in the door.

"I got roped into delivering a scroll to Gai," he answered. "Have I told you today that I love you?"

Fukurou laughed weakly. "Let me guess, invisibility cloak?"

Kakashi smirked. "Yes, but I love you for more than just that," he answered, pulling down his mask to kiss her gently.

"Did Hinata tell you already? Or do I get to see your reaction?" Fukurou asked when he pulled away.

Kakashi blinked and turned to the girl who was standing in the doorway.

"Fukurou-senpai is having twins, Kakashi-san," the girl told him, grinning happily. "Do you think they'll be like Fred and George?"

Kakashi nearly passed out, as he had done when Fukurou had first told him that she was pregnant.

Distantly, he heard the two women laughing at him. When he finally adjusted this new information within his mind, he kissed Fukurou again, deeply and passionately.

~The End~


End file.
